Stupid questions

I'm creating a new web site for my company... using a different domain... but the only difference is the domain ends with .co.uk instead of .com

the actual domain name is my company name... which I have used for old web site but on a .com domain...


All the content for the new .co.uk domain will be unique... however I'm obviously still going to use the same brand name...

Will google see this as duplicate content or rank me lower for the new domain due to the similarity of the branding of new web site and old web site?

As long as all my content is unique except for usage of the brand name in the domain name and content, will I be able to rank highly for the new web site and hopefully out rank my old web site?

Is it ok to keep my old web site running until I've fully completed my new web site and had some success with ranking it on google? (I plan to shut the old web site down once I'm ranked well with the new web site)

Would it be ok to place a link from the old site to the new site, until I'm ranked well for the new web site or will google penalise me for this?

My reasons for creating the new web site, is because the rankings were hit by the penguin update, and it was suggested to me on here I start fresh... because it may take a long time to recover even if I make the necessary steps... Plus the web site could do with a redesign as well...

Thank you