Elevate Education Pty Ltd and Australian Securities and Investments Commission

This matter concerned an objection by Elevate Education Pty Ltd (the Applicant) to the registration of a business name by another entity. The dispute arose because the Applicant contended that the proposed business name was identical or nearly identical to its registered company name, "Elevate Education Pty Ltd," and therefore should not be available for registration under the *Business Names Registration Act 2011* (Cth) (the BNR Act). The decision was made by Linda Kirk SM.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the disputed business name was "identical or nearly identical" to the Applicant's company name, as defined by the BNR Act and the *Business Names Registration (Availability of Names) Determination 2015* (the 2015 Determination). This determination was crucial for establishing whether the proposed name was "available" for registration under section 24(1)(c) of the BNR Act.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the specific rules for comparing business names with company names, as set out in section 7 of the 2015 Determination. This section mandates the application of rules found in Part 1 of Schedule 6 to the *Corporations Regulations 2001*. These rules specify various elements to be disregarded when comparing names, including the use of articles, corporate identifiers like "Pty Ltd," singular or plural forms of words, and variations in formatting, spacing, and punctuation. The Tribunal applied these rules to the names in question to ascertain if they met the criteria for being identical or nearly identical.