MANILA, Philippines – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is rationalizing the guidelines on the use of corporate and partnership names.
The new rules simplify the identification of a company based on the nature of its business, avoiding confusion for the investing public, the corporate regulator said.
In a memorandum, SEC said it came up with the Omnibus Guidelines and Procedures on the Use of Corporate and Partnership Names “to keep abreast with developments in business and information technology in the country.”
“The SEC shall, for the protection of the public interest and other justifiable causes, disallow the use of names that, in its judgment, are misleading, deceptive, confusingly similar to a registered name, or contrary to public morals, good customs or public policy,” the agency said.
The corporate regulator said corporate names should contain “Corp.” or “Inc.” but partnerships are required to bear “Co.” or “Ltd.” A professional partnership name may include “Co.,” “Associates” or “Partners.”
“A term that describes the business of a corporation in its name should refer to its primary purpose,” SEC said.
Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
“The name shall not be identical, misleading or confusingly similar to a corporate or partnership name registered with the SEC, or with the Department of Trade and Industry, in the case of sole proprietorships,” it added.
The corporate watchdog also prevented companies from using punctuation marks, spaces, signs and symbols to differentiate a proposed name from a registered entity.
“The name of an internationally known foreign corporation, or something similar to it, cannot be used by a domestic corporation unless it is its subsidiary and the parent corporation has consented to such use,” SEC said.
