We have written this information page because -

1. We know, from dealing with thousands of customers over the years, that there is a widespread wrongly held belief that, for example, XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd trading simply as XYZ Enterprises need not separately register XYZ Enterprises as a business name.
2. We also know that there is a widespread wrongly held belief (which wrongly held belief is even held by some ASIC registered agents) that XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd may not separately register XYZ Enterprises as a business name.

The short answer is YES.

However, many people (wrongly) think that XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd may not separately register XYZ Enterprises as a business name under the Business Names Registration Act 2011 because they (rightly) think that XYZ Enterprises will be deemed to be a 'near identical' name to XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd but (wrongly) think that that is the end of the matter. Whilst it is true that no person or entity other than XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd may register the business name XYZ Enterprises, XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd may itself register the business name XYZ Enterprises, because the nearly identical registered company name XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd is not registered for "another body" but is registered for itself (cf. section 25 of the Business Names Registration Act 2011).

Again, the short answer is YES.

Even though XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd is already registered as a company name under the Corporations Act 2001, if XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd wants to trade simply as XYZ Enterprises, then XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd must separately register XYZ Enterprises as a business name under the Business Names Registration Act 2011. This is because -

1. Section 18 (1) of the Business Names Registration Act 2011 provides that –

An entity [XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd] commits an offence if the entity [XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd] carries on a business under a name [XYZ Enterprises] and the name [XYZ Enterprises] is not registered to the entity [XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd] as a business name on the Business Names Register.

2. Further, none of the exceptions to Section 18 (1), as listed in section 18 (2), apply. And in particular the section 18 (2)(b) exception in the case of a corporation does not apply.

The Section 18 (2)(b) exception provides -

Subsection (1) does not apply if ... the entity is a corporation and the name is the corporation's name

And in order to dispel any doubt that "Pty Ltd” forms part of the corporation's name -

Section 119 of the Corporations Act 2001 provides that -

... The company's name is the name specified in the certificate of registration [XYZ Enterprises Pty Ltd].

Point 3.3 of Section 111J of the Corporations Act 2001 provides that -

A proprietary company limited by shares must have the words "Proprietary Limited" as part of its name. Those words can be abbreviated to “Pty Ltd”. (bolding added)