Guidelines for Naming a Company

GUIDELINES FOR NAMING A COMPANY

1. APPLICATION

This guideline is applicable to all applications for registration of name

for incorporation of a company or change of name of a company.

2. THE PROVISIONS OF THE LAW

The Companies Act 1965 (the Act) provides that before a company or

its change of name is registered, the Minister of Domestic Trade and

Consumer Affairs or the Registrar of Companies must first approve the

name or the new name of the company respectively accordingly.

The statutory provision under section 22(1) of the Act provides that,

except with the consent of the Minister, a company shall not be

registered by a name that, in the opinion of the Registrar, is

undesirable or is a name, or a kind of name, that the Minister has

directed the Registrar not to accept for registration. Similar provision

which is applicable for foreign companies is contained in section

341(1) of the Act.

By virtue of the said provisions, the Registrar is subject to the

following prohibitions or restrictions when considering an application

for a company name:

o Prohibitions in the use of names included under the Minister’s

direction; and

o Any such name, which in the opinion of the Registrar, is

undesirable.

PROHIBITIONS

MINISTER

BY

VIRTUE

OF

THE

DIRECTION

OF

THE

The Direction of the Minister is as gazetted under Government Gazette

No. 716 dated 30 January 1997 and Gazette (Amendment) dated 11

October 2001. The contents of the Direction from the Minister are as

follows –

(a) Names suggesting connection with a members of the Royal family

or Royal patronage including names containing such words as “Royal”,

“King”, “Queen”, “Prince”, “Princess”, “Crown”, “Regent” or “Imperial”;

(b) Names suggesting connection with a State or Federal government

department, statutory body, authority or government agency or any

municipality or other local authority, including names containing such

words as “Federal”, “State” or “National”;...