Small business being copied

[Shoplocal]

Hi,

I have just registered a Partnership selling clothing that myself and a friend set up in April as we are now starting to get a few sales. We purchased a domain name and set up an etsy store and socials in April with the intention of running the website when sales get to a reasonable volume.

While registering I happened to come across another clothing business on social media that has recently set up in the same name as us, their intro to the business is also very similar. I can't see that they are registered other than a domain name and know the person lives locally to us.

We would really appreciate any advice about the best way to proceed as we have put a lot of work into this so far.

Thank you.

[atticus]

"While registering": are you sure the other business wasn't there first?

[Shoplocal]

Hi Atticus, Thanks for your reply.

Yes, when we first registered our domain names etc in April we spent a lot of time looking to ensure it was unique. Naively we should have registered with company house at the time, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and we didn't know where it would go then.

The new business purchased their domain 6 months after us and had no online presence before September. Their bio is very similar to ours and they also live locally.

[dslippy]

Try to restart with a different name.