The Ministry of Justice ("MOJ") has recently issued the Administrative Regulations for the Registration of Enterprise Names (Draft for Review) (the "Draft for Review") and the Regulations for Privately-owned Businesses (Revised Draft for Review) for public comment by December 9, 2018.
The Draft for Review, comprised of 39 articles in six chapters, introduces major revisions in the following respects. The first is replacing the examination and approval system for enterprise names with the declaration system. The second is providing clarity on the formal elements for the constitution of an enterprise name. The third is setting out provisions for what content is prohibited in an enterprise name. The fourth is touching upon the enterprise name declaration system. The fifth is improving enterprise name registration procedures. The sixth is regulating the period for which a declared enterprise name will be retained. The seventh is about provisions concerning the name of the parent company of a group and names of this group's members. The eighth is about examination duties of the enterprise name registry. The ninth is about the transfer and the authorized use of an enterprise name. The tenth is about the mechanism to handle and address the dispute over an enterprise name. And the eleventh is about the mandatory name cancellation system. According to the Draft for Review, the important goal of this reform in the registration of enterprise names is to scrap the administrative approval step for the preliminary approval of a proposed enterprise name to enable the independent and direct declaration of an enterprise name.