Thursday 7 February 2013

Closing a Limited Company


Closing a Limited Company - Voluntary Strike Off in Ireland

How to Close Your Limited Company - If a company has ceased trading or has never traded it may avail of Voluntarily Strike Off to have the company struck off from the register of companies.

Our Voluntary Strike Off document drafting expertise and advice is provided to many companies each year, seeking to Close a Limited Company.


Closing a Limited Company - Your Company Status
 


In order to apply to close a limited company and benefit from the Voluntary Strike Off process;


  • company debts should have been fully paid/ compromised or else written confirmation of write-off secured by the company from any creditor.
  • any assets and liabilities must not exceed €150.
  • all corporate tax liabilities will similarly have to be discharged.
  • the company should not have issued capital in excess of €150 now or at any time in the past 3 years.
  • all annual returns and revenue filing requirements must be up to date at the time of application or be in the process of being finalised in advance of making application.

Business & Company Formations can advise you on the Voluntary Strike Off and Company Closure process. We will assist the Voluntary Strike Off of your company by drafting the required statements and public notices for you, advising on any outstanding filing requirements, assisting in the completion of any outstanding accounts matters and liasing where appropriate with the Revenue Commissioners and the Registrar of Companies.

Note, that Closing a Limited Company i.e. the Voluntary Strike Off process is a lengthy one and can take anything up to six months.


Contact us to handle your voluntary strike off  requirements.

Trademark Your Name


Trade Marks & Protecting your Name

What is a Trade Mark ?

 A trade mark may be described as the manner by which a business distinguishes itself from that of its competitors and others.  A trade mark may be achieved by identifying not only a business or trading name but also by identifying the goods, products and or services that the business in question trades in.

 What Can be Trademarked ?

A trademark may be a collection of words, numbers, designs, logos, letters, distinctive packaging, shape of goods and or packaging and or any sign capable of being represented graphically which would distinguish one undertaking from another.

Examples of some very famous trademarks would be Coca Cola, Disneyland, Google, Microsoft etc.

Trade Mark Disputes

Identifying an protecting your brand, trade mark etc can be a very complex and costly matter. Disputes frequently arise amongst those seeking to enforce their rights to a particular Mark.  Some notable trade mark disputes have arisen amongst the giants if international business. As an example Apple Inc. a company not averse to seeking trade mark infringement redress, was involved in litigation for over 20 years with a record company, called Apple Corp.  It just so happens that the record company in question was the Beatles record company.  Apple Inc disputed the right of the record company with regard to the use of the term "Apple." The matter was eventually settled in 2007 with Apple Inc. purchasing all trademarks relating to "Apple," and licensing back some of the marks to Apple Corp the record company.

Those of you that have enjoyed Subway's "footlong" sandwich may be interested and or even surprised to know that they made an attempt to register a trademark relating to "Footlong" but the application was rejected presumably based on the word "footlong being considered to be a descriptive word as opposed to a significantly distinguishing word.  Nevertheless Subway have recently sought to take action against a number of catering outlets who use the term " footlong" when describing the wares in their eateries.  The outcome of these actions a have yet to be determined but further illustrates the complexity of trade-marking and the lengths that some entities will go to to protect their rights or perceived rights !

International Trade Marks - Other Considerations

Establishing the right to a Trade mark has significant advantages but the right must be established to include all territories within which that trade mark may be used. This can be a very costly procedure because the Trade Mark may have to be registered globally in order to effectively protect the brand or mark. As an example, back in 2002 an enterprising chap in Japan by the name of Taro Yamamoto, sought to register the domain tokyodisneyresort.com You may recall that Disney were at that that time in the initial stages of setting up their Disneyland Tokyo operation. Needless to say once Disney Enterprises Inc. became aware of the existence of the domain they sought to have the registration of the domain and brought an action to have the domain transferred to them. Whilst such a domain dispute is not a trademark dispute Disney Enterprises Inc. proved that they were the owners of numerous marks incorporating the DISNEY mark and consequently won their case to have the domain transferred to them.

We have no idea what happened to Taro Yamamoto !.

Audit Exemption & How it Works

Audit Exemption 

 A company filing its annual return may rely on audit exemption i.e relief from the requirement to have company accounts audited thereby reducing the costs of ongoing compliance significantly. This should not be confused with the ongoing requirements regarding company accounts preparation and approval for private limited companies.

There are certain criteria that apply to Audit Exemption and these are summarised as follows;  In order to benefit from Audit Exemption in respect of the financial year concerned: 

The company must be a Private Limited Company;
The turnover of the company must not exceed €8.8 million;
The balance sheet total of the company must be less than €4.4 million at the end of its financial year;
The average number of employees must not exceed 50; 
The company must not be a parent company or a subsidiary company;