Doing business in Vietnam: How to name the company?

Danh mục nội dung

Foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprise means an organization whose members or shareholders are foreign investors, established and operating in accordance with Vietnam’s laws that carry out business investment activities. Foreign investor means an individual holding a foreign nationality or an organization established under foreign laws and carrying out business investment activities in Vietnam.

There is only a Business Law system for both local and foreigner investors for doing business in Vietnam, deals with the establishment, organization, restructuring, dissolution, and relevant activities of enterprises, including limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, partnerships, sole proprietorships, and groups of companies. Setting up a business in Vietnam must operate in accordance with relevant regulations on business registration, name the company, taxation, accounting, labour, insurance, foreign exchange, and anti-money laundering, etc.

It would be our pleasure to share with you for any query or question about the terms and conditions as well as practical cases which we have been experiencing since years 2000, where the first law on enterprise has allowed private sector to born and blooming.

DOING BUSINESS IN VIETNAM

SETTING UP A COMPANY IN VIETNAM – HOW TO NAME THE COMPANY

THE VIETNAMESE NAME OF AN ENTERPRISE CONSISTS OF TWO ELEMENTS

The type of business entity. The type of business entity is written as “công ty trách nhiệm hữu hạn” or “công ty TNHH” (limited liability company); “công ty cổ phần” or “công ty CP” (joint-stock company); “công ty hợp danh” or “công ty HD” (partnership); “doanh nghiệp tư nhân”, “DNTN” or “doanh nghiệp TN” (sole proprietorship);
The proper name is written using the Vietnamese alphabet, the letters, F, J, Z, W, digits, and symbols.

Note:

The company’s name must be posted up at the headquarter, branches, representative offices, and other business locations of the enterprise. The company’s name must be printed or written on transaction documents, materials, and publications published by the enterprise.
Business registration authorities are entitled to refuse to grant approval for company’s name.

PROHIBITIONS WHEN NAMING A COMPANY

Name the company that is the same as or confused with another company’s name which has been registered.
Using names of regulatory bodies, the armed forces, political organizations, socio-political organizations, socio-political-professional organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations as the whole or part of the enterprise’s proper name, unless otherwise permitted by the organization.
Using words or symbols that offend the history, tradition, culture of Vietnam.

TO NAME THE COMPANY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND ABBREVIATED NAME

To name the enterprise in foreign language means the name translated from the Vietnamese name into a foreign language that uses the Latin alphabet. When translated into a foreign language, the enterprise’s name may be kept unchanged or translated into a word or phrase with a corresponding meaning.
If the enterprise has a foreign name, its size must be smaller than the enterprise’s Vietnamese name at the headquarter, branches, representative offices, business locations of the enterprise, on the enterprise’s documents and publications.
Abbreviated name of an enterprise may be derived from the Vietnamese name or the foreign language name.

NAMES OF BRANCHES, REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES, AND BUSINESS LOCATIONS

Names of branches, representative offices, and business locations must be written using the Vietnamese alphabet, the letters F, J, Z, W, digits, and symbols.
The name of each branch or representative office must bear the enterprise’s name and the word “Chi nhánh” (“Branch of”) or “Văn phòng đại diện” (“Representative office”)
Names of branches, representative offices, and business locations must be put up at the branches, representative office, and business locations. The name of the branch or representative office must be smaller than the enterprise’s name on the documents issued by the branch or representative office.

TO NAME THE COMPANY – USED NAME AND CONFUSING NAME

A used name means a Vietnamese name chosen by an enterprise which is exactly the same as the name of another registered enterprise. A company’s name is considered confusing in the following cases:

The Vietnamese name chosen by the company is pronounced similarly to the name of a registered company;
The abbreviated name chosen by the company is the same as the abbreviated name of a registered company;
The foreign language name chosen by the company is the same as the foreign language name of a registered company;
The proper name chosen by the company is different from that of a registered company of the same type by only a digit or a letter (in the Vietnamese alphabet, or the letter F, J, Z, W) right after the chosen proper name; The proper name chosen by the company is different from that of a registered company of the same type by only a symbol “&”, “.”, “+”, “-”, “_”;
The proper name chosen by the company is different from that of a registered company of the same type by only a word “tân” (“new”) before or “mới” after the proper name;
The proper name chosen by the company is different from that of a registered company of the same type by only a word “miền Bắc” (”Northern”), “miền Nam” (”Southern”), “miền Trung” (”Central”), “miền Tây” (”Western”), “miền Đông” (”Eastern”), or a word with similar meanings.

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DOING BUSINESS IN VIETNAM HOW TO NAME THE COMPANY