Team members Profiles
Team links
Return to the Business Law Team

www.companieshouse.gov.uk - The home page of Companies House contains some useful facilities. The best of these being the ability to search for any company registered in England or Scotland by name or company number. The search result will show the company name, company number, registered office (useful for serving documents), when the accounts are due for filing, if the accounts are late, whether the company is in liquidation and any previous names the company may have had in the last twenty years. The website also allows one to search for disqualified directors. In addition the website contains on-line Companies House forms together with guidance books and FAQ's.

www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk - This website contains news, information about tax issues together with on-line tax forms and guidance books from the Inland Revenue.

www.hmso.gov.ukwww.hmso.gov.uk - This government website contains all Statutory Instruments passed since 1987 and Acts of Parliament passed in the last 13 years. Consequently, there is a lot of information which may not be relevant for your purposes and unfortunately the search facility on the website is not particularly good.

www.patent.gov.uk - This is an excellent website which contains an enormous amount of information in respect of trade marks, copyright, designs and patents. The site explains the four areas of intellectual property and how to apply to register them. There are on-line application forms, guidance notes and fees for applications.

www.patent.gov.uk/tm/dbase/index.htm - Check if a potential trademark has been registered

www.patent.gov.uk/design/dbase/index.htm - Check if a potential design has been registered

www.patent.gov.uk/patent/dbase/index.htm - Check if a potential patent has been registered

www.dpr.gov.uk - This link will allow you to check the public register (as kept by the Information Commissioner) of all data controllers which need to be registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and if necessary to renew your registration online.