Who really owns it

Registries turn a brand into a legal entity with a number, dates, addresses, and named people. The thing nobody tells you first: registry structure varies enormously by jurisdiction, and that variance is the entire game. One country publishes full accounts, share registers, and directors' birth dates for free. Its neighbour publishes a name and a status code and charges for the rest. Your research strategy is not "look up the company" — it is "work out what this jurisdiction lets me see, then plan around the gap".

Second thing: search by company number, not name. The number is issued once and persists through renames, mergers, and dissolution. The name does not.

Triage