The name of the company has an incredible power to assure quality and credibility, and also to set a customer expectation. Mainly, a new name of the company will represents the branding for a company. The (MCA) Ministry of Corporate Affairs has the regulatory framework to set up which must have be consider while checking an availability of company name.
In case your company name does not fall under the set of rules as mentioned by MCA, then your Company registration application might get rejected. However, the MCA has a final authority to approve or reject the name.
Process to Check Availability of Name of the Company
- The availability of company name has to be checked on MCA portal and also on a Trademark portal.
- To check the new name for company on MCA, open a tab CHECK COMPANY NAME from the website of MCA[1].
- Enter a name of the company and nature of your main business in activity type column. For instance a software development business enters “software” or “technology” as an activity type. However, it is not mandatory to insert the particular business product, the broader aspects will be sufficient to showcase the accurate results in the portal.
- While clicking on the search, it will show all results with the similar company name. If an availability of company name is there it will show as a result “Entered Company/LLP name does not exist”.
- One must check the availability of company name by entering only the first or first two words.
- As per the rules, the name should not resemble with trademark except an owner of a trademark provides NOC to use such name. Hence the new company name must also be checked on trademark portal.
- One should know the trademark class for goods and services to check an availability of company name under the trademark.
- Open a trademark search from a trademark portal and enter the name and class for the same.
- One should check it by selecting “phonetic” also the MCA will compares phonetically similar names.
- One must apply for the name with MCA if a name seems available. If name is mostly unique then one can directly apply for a company name within a form of incorporation of the company. But if chances of availability of company name are less than the separate name application must be filed. In the name application, one can apply for maximum of two names. If MCA does not approve any of names then an applicant will get one more chance to apply for the other two names.
Must NOT do the following while selecting a new company name
Key factors to be considered while selecting a name as per recent amendments in the Companies Act is as under:
Following Must Keep in Mind to Avoid Company Name Rejection
Before finalizing the company name, one should check the availability of the company name to avoid a rejection from the ministry:
- Must not be already Trademarked– The proposed company name, must not be identical to any existing company’s name, or a registered trademark*, or a trademark already in a process of Trademark Registration. For instance, ‘ebay’ is the existing company name. The MCA will not approve a company name ‘ebae’ even though the spelling is different but sounding similar.
- A common Rejection– Do not add the common words such as New, Nav, Shri, Modern, Sri, Shree, Om, Jai, Sai, The, etc. already existing a lot in a company name. It will get rejected.
- A place name is Ignored– In case the name of a company is different from the name of the existing company then adding a name of the place, the MCA will not approve it. For instance, Ace Cochin Limited must not be allowed as a name if the name Ace Limited already exists.
- Get Mandatory Regulators Approval – If name of your company includes words like Insurance, Stock Exchange, Bank, Venture Capital, Asset Management, Nidhi, Mutual fund, etc., the one must required to get formalities mandated by the respective regulators such are IRDA, SEBI, RBI, MCA, etc., depending on the word that has to be used.
- ‘State’ is out of the question – Never use a word ‘State’ while naming a company. Only the government companies have an authority to use the word ‘State’ in their names.
- Don’t copy and paste – The name of the company that is exact of Hindi translation of any English name for the existing company cannot be allowed. For instance, Ace Aam Producers will not be approved if a company named Ace Mango Producers already exists.
- Blacklist – Adjectives, Abbreviations, and generic words are liable t0 be rejected. So BBC or XYZ will get rejected. The words bank, exchange and stock exchange, unless approved by RBI or SEBI, would also be rejected.
- No to offensive or illegal– The proposed name of the company must not be offensive to any section or group in the society or must not contain any profanity or must not be illegal or prohibited by law.
Conclusion
The Company name can create an identity that people can associate with. There is importance of the company name; it is time when we put time and effort in choosing a name for a company. Checking the availability of company name it is important step involved in Private Limited Company Registration. One can easily check a name of the company. However, it becomes easier to check it through the professionals at Corpbiz.
Read our article:Annual Compliance of a Public Limited Company: Rules and Procedures
