Would a company based in Scotland include "Inc." in its name?

[GorillaMan]

@ticker

To the best of my knowledge:

A company listed as Limited/Ltd is one where the owners/directors have no personal liability for the company debts (i.e. Limited Liability). They must be registered with Companies House and submit accounts.

That’s correct - formally known as Private Limited Companies.

@E. Thorp

In particular I’m curious about the company BioReliance, based in Glasgow but also operating in the USA. In a document I’m editing, the name has to be as correct as possible, and “BioReliance, Inc. (Glasgow, Scotland)” looked wrong to me.

Stirling University:

Bioreliance Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of BioReliance Corporation, of
Maryland, USA

[Futile_Gesture]

It wouldn’t be unheard of a company in Scotland to have ‘Inc’ as part of their name. But it would only be part of the name, not as any legal title. ‘Inc’ signifies nothing about the legal status of a company based in Scotland.

Generally it would be used just 'cos it sounds impressive, and ‘big’ in an ironic multi-national American kind of way. You wouldn’t use it if you were really multi-national and big.

So you could even have a company called “Widgets Inc. plc.”

[GorillaMan]

@Futile Gesture

It wouldn’t be unheard of a company in Scotland to have ‘Inc’ as part of their name. But it would only be part of the name, not as any legal title. ‘Inc’ signifies nothing about the legal status of a company based in Scotland.

Generally it would be used just 'cos it sounds impressive, and ‘big’ in an ironic multi-national American kind of way. You wouldn’t use it if you were really multi-national and big.

So you could even have a company called “Widgets Inc. plc.”

A name (including trading names) for any limited company is a legal title. However, there’d be no contradiction in having ‘Inc.’ within the title, because by definition all limited companies are incorporated. However, I’d suspect it would still get rejected by Companies House as potentially misleading.

Any use of ‘Inc.’ within a business name of a non-incorporated organisation would, I suspect, be running the risk of some serious questions being asked about whether it was potentially misleading.

The complexities of choosing a business name can be found here: http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gbf2.shtml

[Mangetout]

Clothes Inc Limited - UK Registered Company No. 04983581

[Mangetout]

Actually I’m not sure if that link takes you to the right place, but suffice it to say that Companies House has at least one UK registered company with ‘Inc’ in the name - Clothes Inc Ltd

[E.Thorp]

Thanks all posters for an interesting discussion, and thanks **GorillaMan ** for pointing me to Stirling University.