Hong Kong Ordinances

COMPANIES ORDINANCE - SECT 20

Restriction on registration of companies by certain names

(Past version on 30/06/1997).

Adaptation amendments retroactively made - see 23 of 1999 s. 3 Provisions with
respect to Names of Companies

(1) A company shall not be registered by a name-

   (a)  which is the same as a name appearing in the Registrar's index of
        company names;

   (b)  which is the same as that of a body corporate incorporated or
        established under an Ordinance;

   (c)  the use of which by the company would, in the opinion of the Chief
        Executive, constitute a criminal offence; or

   (d)  which, in the opinion of the Chief Executive, is offensive or
        otherwise contrary to the public interest.

(2) Except with the consent of the Chief Executive no company shall be
registered by a name which-

   (a)  in the opinion of the Chief Executive, would be likely to give the
        impression that the company is connected in any way with the Central
        People's Government or the Government of Hong Kong or any department
        of either Government; or

   (b)  includes any word or expression for the time being specified in an
        order made under section 22B.

(3) In determining for the purposes of subsection (1)(a) or (b) whether one
name is the same as another-

   (a)  the following shall be disregarded-

        (i)    the definite article, where it is the first word of the name;

        (ii)   the following words and expressions where they appear at the
               end of the name, that is to say-
(A) "company"; (B) "and company";
(C) "company limited"; (D) "and company limited";
(E) "limited";
(F) "unlimited";
(G) "public limited company"; (H) "公司"; (Added 3 of 1997 s. 8) (I)
"有限公司"; (Added 3 of 1997 s. 8) (J) "無限公司"; and (Added 3 of
1997 s. 8) (K) "公眾有限公司"; (Added 3 of 1997 s. 8)

        (iii)  abbreviations of any of the words or expressions referred to in
               subparagraph (ii) where they appear at the end of the name; and

        (iv)   type and case of letters, accents, spaces between letters and
               punctuation marks; (Amended 3 of 1997 s. 8)

        (b)	"and" and "&", "Hong Kong", "Hongkong" and "HK", and "Far East" 
and "FE" are respectively to be taken as the same;

   (c)  two different Chinese characters shall be regarded as the same if the
        Registrar is satisfied that having regard to the usage of the two
        Chinese characters in Hong Kong, they can reasonably be used
        interchangeably. (Added 3 of 1997 s. 8) (Replaced 60 of 1990 s. 3.
        Amended 23 of 1999 s. 3) [cf. 1985 c. 6 s. 26 U.K.]