1238. (1) Subject to subsection (6), neither a body that is not an unlimited company nor an individual shall carry on any trade, profession or business under a name which includes, as its last part, the words “unlimited company”, or “cuideachta neamhtheoranta” or abbreviations of those words.

(2) If a body or individual contravenes subsection (1), the body or individual and, in the case of a body, any officer of it who is in default, shall be guilty of a category 3 offence.

(3) An unlimited company shall not, in the following circumstances, use a name which may reasonably be expected to give the impression that it is any type of a company other than an unlimited company or that it is any other form of body corporate.

(4) Those circumstances are circumstances in which the fact that it is an unlimited company is likely to be material to any person.

(5) If an unlimited company contravenes subsection (3), the unlimited company and any officer of it who is in default shall be guilty of a category 3 offence.

(6) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any company—

(a) to which Part 21 applies, and

(b) which has provisions in its constitution that would entitle it to rank as an unlimited company if it had been registered in the State.