Chapter 1 General Provisions

Article 1 These Measures are hereby formulated in accordance with Provisions on Administration of Enterprise Name Registration, Measures for the Implementation of Administration of Enterprise Name Registration, Regulations of Guangdong Province on Business Registration and others, in order to further facilitate the ease of registration and simplify procedures for enterprise name registration.

Article 2 These Measures are applicable to autonomously applied enterprise names with the administrative division of "Guangzhou Municipal" or "Guangzhou", and relevant administration activities.

Article 3 The autonomous application of enterprise names mentioned in these Measures refers to the inquiry, comparison, judgment and application of the proposed enterprise name by the applicant autonomously through relevant systems, for which the applicant shall bear corresponding legal liabilities.

Article 4 The enterprise names shall be in Chinese characters conforming with national standards.

Chapter 2 Enterprise Name

Article 5 An enterprise name shall be composed of the administrative division, the entity name (or trade name, the same below), the trade or business operation characteristics, and the organizational form.

For business requirements, an enterprise may place the administrative division after its entity and before its organizational form.

Article 6 A proposed enterprise name shall not be the same as or similar to an enterprise name applied (approved) or registered in Guangzhou. Exceptions are made for similar names of enterprises with direct investment relations.

Article 7 With any of the following circumstances, a proposed enterprise name shall be deemed to the same to an existing enterprise name:

(1) Those are identical with an enterprise name applied (approved) or registered in Guangzhou;

(2) Those are identical with the former name of an enterprise which applied for a change less than one year;

(3) Those are identical with the name of any enterprise which canceled for less than one year;

(4) Those are identical with the name of any enterprise whose business license which has been revoked or canceled for less than three years.

Article 8 With any of the following circumstances, the proposed name from an autonomous application shall be deemed to similar to an enterprise name applied (approved) or registered in Guangzhou:

(1) Those of the entity names and the trades in the enterprise names are the same, but the organizational forms are different;

(2) Those of the entity names in the enterprise names are the same, and the trades have different expressions but the same meaning;

(3) Those of the pronunciations of the entity names in the enterprise names are the same with similarly shaped characters, and the trades have the same meaning;

(4) Those of the enterprise names do not contain the trades, but have the same entity name and different organizational forms;

(5) Those of the enterprise names do not contain the trades, but the pronunciations of the entity names are the same with similarly shaped characters;

(6) Those of the entity name in a proposed enterprise name without any trade is the same as that in an enterprise name applied (approved) or registered in Guangzhou with trade.

Article 9 Autonomous application of enterprise names shall not contain any of the following contents or words:

(1) Those being detrimental to State and social public interests, and going against social morality;

(2) Names of political parties, names of party, government or army departments, names of people's organizations, names of social organizations or military designations of military units;

(3) The Chinese phonetic alphabet and Arabic numerals;

(4) Those causing misleading to the public regarding its investors, sources of its products (services), and the like;

(5) Those being prone to be confused with the names of other legal persons and organizations, causing misleading among the public;

(6) Those causing deception or misleading to the public.

Article 10 Where the proposed enterprise names touches upon restriction of the use of words and contents, the enterprise shall submit the declaration in accordance with the rules.

Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation shall formulate rules for the restricted use of enterprise names in accordance with laws, regulations and ordinance, and make them public.

Article 11 The entity name in an enterprise name shall be composed of two or more Chinese characters, but the names of administrative divisions at or above the county level shall not be used as the entity name.

The name of a natural person investor may be used as the entity name.

Article 12 Except the name of its branches, the entity name of an enterprise name shall not contain the following contents or words:

(1) Expression of the trade;

(2) Expression of the type of enterprise and the organizational form.

Article 13 Unless otherwise permitted by the proprietor of a trademark, an entity name shall not be the same as or similar to a well-known trademark or a famous trademark in the same trade.

Article 14 The expression of the trade in an enterprise name shall comply with that of the category as per the national trade classification standards, and reflect its trade or business operation characteristics.

For subscribing a registered fund of more than RMB 50 million, an enterprise may not indicate trade or business operation characteristics in the enterprise name.

Article 15 An enterprise name shall not contain the expression of the trade prohibited by laws, regulations, rules and normative documents, or any trade prohibited from development in national and regional policies.

Article 16 The expression of trade in enterprise name using "industry" or "development" shall be the suffix to the expression of other trades.

Article 17 For the requirement of representing its business operation characteristics, an enterprise may use the name of the State (region) or administrative area at or above the county level and place it after the entity name in its enterprise name as modifier.

The modifier mentioned above is not regarded as the administrative division in the enterprise name.

Article 18 An enterprise shall indicate its organizational form in its name according to its organizational structure or form of liability.

Article 19 The name of an enterprise's branch shall be preceded by name of the enterprise and indicated the trade and the administrative division where it is located, or the trade may be dispensed indication while the branch trade is the same as the enterprise.

Chapter 3 Application of Enterprise Name

Article 20 Where the applicant applies for the name of a newly registered enterprise, the applicant shall login the "Business One Link Platform" of Starting a Business in Guangzhou to autonomously select and apply for the enterprise name. After search and approval by the system, the applicant shall apply to the business registration authority for registration of establishment, with relevant documents submitted along with the application.

Where the applicant applies to change the enterprise name, the applicant shall login the autonomous application system in Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation to autonomously select and apply for the enterprise name, and receive the notification on autonomous application of enterprise name after search and approval by the system.

Article 21 For the proposed enterprise name submitted by applicant which does not violate any provisions in these Measures shall be registered at the business registration authority.

Article 22 For the proposed name submitted by applicant which violates the provisions in these Measures, the business registration authority shall reject and not approve the application, and issue a document of rejection; the applicant will require another application for enterprise name.

Article 23 Where the application for the proposed enterprise name involves words and contents prescribed in rules for the restricted use of enterprise names, such as well-known trademarks, famous trademarks, similar names between enterprises with direct investment relations, the applicant shall submit the declaration in accordance with the rules. The business registration authority shall give opinions within one working day based on the different situations as follows:

(1) For those conforming to the rules, the applicant is allowed to apply for registration and may print the notification on autonomous application of enterprise name;

(2) For those not conforming to the rules, the applicant would be informed that the enterprise name is not permitted for registration with the reasons specified. The applicant may print the document of rejection for the enterprise name.

Article 24 An enterprise name shall be valid for one month after autonomous application.

Where the applicant fails to complete the registration within one month, an extension of one month may be applied through the web portal of Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation in five working days before its expiration.

Article 25 Any registered enterprise name, potentially causing fraudulence or misleading to the public or damage the legitimate rights and interests of others, shall be deemed to be an inappropriate enterprise name and shall be rectified.

Article 26 Where a dispute arises over the names of different enterprises, the enterprise in question may apply to the business registration authority for resolution or file a lawsuit to the people's court.

Article 27 The business registration authority shall order an enterprise to correct its inappropriate enterprise name within a time limit.

Where an enterprise refuses to correct its inappropriate enterprise name, or refuses to correct the enterprise name revoked by the administrative authority for reconsideration or the people's court, the business registration authority shall directly delete its name from the enterprise name database, and temporarily replace it with its unified social credit code, list it in the abnormal business operation catalogue and made public on Guangzhou Commercial Entity Information Publicity Platform and the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (Guangzhou).

Article 28 These Measures shall come into force on promulgation and shall be valid for 5 years. The Notice of Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce on Printing and Distributing the Administrative Measures for Autonomous Application and Registration of Enterprise Names in Guangzhou (Trial) (Sui Gong Shang Gui Zi [2018] No. 2) shall be abrogated on the same date.

Appendix: Rules for the Restricted Use of Enterprise Names for Autonomous Application in Guangzhou