According to the Companies Act 1965, a company must get the approval from the SSM or the KPDNHEP on the company’s name before they register the name for the company or change the company’s name. When considering a company name application, SSM will comply with certain restrictions and prohibitions. This includes the prohibitions in using the names that are included under the direction of the Minister, or any names that SSM thinks is undesirable. In this article, we will focus more on the names that are included in the direction of the Minister.
Business owners need to know how they should apply for their company name. If they need help on this matter, they can seek help from a corporate secretarial firm Johor Bahru.
There are some prohibitions on the use of company (Also see Bookkeeping Tips Which are Important for a Newly Incorporated Company) name on account of the direction of the Minister. These include names that are related to the members of the Royal Family or names that suggest a relationship with Royal patronage, for examples, names that include the words like “King”, “Queen”, “Imperial”, “Reagent”, “Royal” and others.
Names that indicates a connection with a State or a Federal government department, authority, municipality, statutory body, government agency or any other local authority are prohibited too. This includes any name that contains words like “National” or “State”. Besides, business owners are prohibited from using names that suggest a relationship with any foreign government or international organisations like “UNESCO”, “EEC” and “ASEAN”.
When naming the company (Also see What is a Company Constitution in Malaysia?), business owners should avoid using names that lead to the belief that the company is connected with any society, building society, co-operative society, political party or trade union and these names would not get the approval for the SSM. The prohibition for company name (Also see Prohibitions on the Use of Undesirable Company Names) also includes the use of the words like “Made in Malaysia”, “Bumiputra”, “College”, “University”, “Fund”, “Banking”, “Investment”, “Insurance”, “Foundation”, “Institute” and any other words that bring the same meaning as the words mentioned above.
Besides, names which are misleading to the nature, objectives, identity or objects of the company, as well as the names which are blasphemous or will probably be offensive to the public are prohibited by SSM. The prohibition also includes the names that are a translation of company’s or a foreign company’s name which are registered under the Companies Act, as well as names that are similar or can be mistaken for the names of other company or foreign company that are registered under the Act. SSM would also prohibit the use of names that may look alike with a name that others have reserved for the incorporation of a newly established company (Also see Does Your Company Prepare Accounts Receivable Aging Report?), registration of a foreign company, a change of name of a company or a foreign company which are registered under the Companies Act.
If an applicant has decided to use the words mentioned above in the company’s name, he needs to apply to the Minister through SSM. In his application, he should state the justification or reasons why he wants to use the words in the proposed company’s name, and he needs to pay RM150.00 for it.