Not allowed call ourselves ME HOLE
We did the right thing and applied to the Companies Registration Office to set up this business as Simple Assembly Me Hole. But our application was turned down on the grounds that the ‘me hole’ bit may be offensive.
Believe me – I’ve been around the houses on this, between supervisors, heads of department, information officers. On Monday of this week I was advised to go straight to the top and put my request in writing to the Head of the CRO himself. I duly did as I was told and spent the rest of this week trying to follow up. At 4.50pm today, the week ended with a reply from himself – the self appointed High Priest of Good Taste:
As you know one of the criteria for determining whether a business name is
undesirable is that it could cause offence. This is obviously a subjective
judgment but I have considered the decision already made and decided that
it should stand.In accordence with Section 14 of the Business Names Act, 1963 it is open to
you to appeal the decision to the High Court.
Does he not realise that start-ups like ourselves don’t have the kind of funds it takes to ‘take it to the High Court’? We are too busy saving marriages and putting under-employed carpenters back to work.
I’m extremely disappointed about this. Especially given that the following business names have already been approved by his same office:
- 2831666 G-SPOT
- 288514 sex.ie
- 291701 sexpartner.ie
How can one man in the civil service get to say what I call my business? When national media has already covered this…it’s been all over the place and people love our name. It brings a smile to their faces.
How can half the population be wrong and the self appointed High Priest of Taste get to say what’s what?
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Hi
Firstly, you have the website, and that’s important.
Secondly, if ANYONE ever tries to register any variation of
Simple Assembly Me Hole
as a company or business name, and it’s accepted by the CRO, then they’re in trouble, and they probably know it. So you’re reasonably safe from your name being stolen.
Thirdly, do you want to try
Simple Assembly – Mícheál
and, mebbe, get a makey uppey Mícheál Carpenter, to go with!
all the best
Eoin
I love the name, and it would be great if the CRO let you register it as such. Still, you should keep everything on your website and paperwork just as it is, and if you have to, register the company name as something else very close to it. For example, register officially as “Simple Assembly Me Hope”, and do the domain thing an’ all, pointing it to simpleassemblymehole.com
When you’re creating your bank accounts, etc, you can have additional “also known as” names so that you can accept cheques, etc, no matter how they’re made out.
Best of luck.
Keep it up.
I personally think this is a VERY crude name.
Plus you are operating as an Irish company, and therefore representing our country to a certain extent, so I am more than happy that someone is monitoring the level of taste in company naming. If you don’t like it, set up a company in another contry with different rules. It is totally unreasonable of you to complian about the rules of setting up a company when you know there these are the normal procedures.
Ah come on now – it’s a company name. Just call it simple assembly. Why does the “hole” bit matter?
People loving your name has no relevance to what you have it registered with at companies office.
But I guess this “whole” matter will create more publicity anyway – so in the end you’ll look back at this and think it was great that the CRO decided against it.
I’m shocked – that’s sanctimonious and self-rightious censorship.
Are you flouting that new blasphemy law I wonder???
Did you not explain to the guardian of our minds in the CRO that the ‘me hole’ refers to the countless, confusing holes in your new flat pack furniture that must be lined up in order to put the thing together
What’s offensive about that? I love your name and if there’s a petition, sign me up!
@Eoin I love that suggestion. It’s definitely in the running. Gonna add a poll to the site and to the Facebook Fan page this week and let people vote on the one they like best.
@Jenny You’re very entitled to your opinion, and thank you for taking the time to come on here and let us know. But if all the entrepreneurs in this country took your advice and left, Ireland Inc would be seriously up the creek.
@Eileen It did cross my mind about the blasphemy law, but I chose to park that one for now and worry about other things!
Love the concept, love the name. Please do not give up on this. In my view the sanctmonious civil-servant who took the decision on this should be ashamed of himself. Unfortunatley, this country is absolutely full of senior civil servants who are on a power-trip. How dare this person come between an inspirational name for a future business, and the start-up of this business in this country. We need more people like yourslef, willing to take a chance, willing to give it a go. What your doing is called entrepeneurship – and guess what, its not a dirty word, although some senior civil servants would make us believe it is. I have another word for you on this occassion – ass-covering (ie.very common around some parts).
I think it is a crude name and maybe if someone else started a company with a name *you* thought very crude, you’d be wondering how they’d been allowed to get away with it. So I think it appropriate that is has not been endorsed officially.
BUT that just means you now need to find an Irish solution to an Irish problem. I don’t have any legal training but I’m pretty sure that you could register your name as e.g. “Simple Assembly” and then you could legally be “Simple Assembly T/A Simple Assembly Me Hole” and your bank should allow you to choose which name to put on your account and you can obviously use whatever name you like for your website, advertising, company letterhead (with registered name in small print somewhere), etc.
Or else go with alternative spellings such as Simple Assembly Me Whole or Simple Assembly Mi. Ho. L.
I think its ridiculous that you couldn’t name your company the way you wanted. Its only “crude” depending on your point of view and as far as I’m concerned its very witty! At least you have the website name!
Hi… was just listening to you on Spin 103.8 – amused by your name dilemma but think the service you offer is very useful. Personally I love building flatpack but have family members who would love to have someone like yourselves do it for them..
could you use simple assembly me whole as an alternitive.. it essentially sounds/reads the same but technically isnt “rude”
good luck with the business
Why not just add an asterix.. me h*le. People would still read it the same!
Simple fix :
Simple Assembly Meh Olé !
P
The name made me laugh, I think it’s great – though it may turn off some conservative biddy types.
By the way – the CRO is one thing; getting a .ie approved is a different issue. Porn.ie was refused for being “offensive”, and the IEDR are a power unto their own – they don’t seem to have any real accountability.
That said, can you not register me hole (the name, not *my* rusty sheriff’s badge) as a trademark instead of a company name?
The name is funny, catching and will be remembered, but in fairness it is pretty inappropriate for a registered company name. There are lines, I believe… This one might be crossing it slightly (and no, I’m certainly not an auld biddy!) I say bravo for having the guts to go for it and utilise this issue effectively as a PR tool to get you into the papers and onto the radio – very well done.
The only thing I would suggest is that you might be careful – you don’t just want to get known as the company who had a barney with the CRO over a funny name – you want to get known as the company with the great – useful – service that people want, need & will pay for… So the only thing I’d say is – don’t fall into the trap of going on about it for too long, just in case that’s all people remember you for!!
Best of luck with everything!