Documents Required for Company Name Reservation in India

Very Few Documents, and Two That Matter Enormously

Name reservation is the lightest filing in the whole incorporation process. For an ordinary name you attach nothing at all: you enter the proposed name, the type of company and the business activity, and submit. Documents become necessary only in specific situations, and those situations are precisely where applications fail. If your name touches a registered trademark, or contains a word that needs a regulator’s clearance, the supporting document is the application.

For a straightforward name: nothing

If your proposed name is distinctive, does not resemble an existing company or LLP, contains no restricted word and touches no trademark, there is no mandatory attachment. You need information, not paperwork:

1. The proposed name or names, in order of preference

1. The type of company, which determines the mandatory suffix

1. The business activity classification

1. The significance of the name, where the form invites you to explain it

Two formatting rules from the MCA’s own instruction material are worth knowing before you type anything: the name has a maximum character limit of 75 characters, and abbreviations of “Private” such as “PVT”, “PVT.” or “(P)” are not permitted in the name.

When the name touches a trademark

This is the most common reason a document is needed, and the most common reason an application dies.

If your proposed name is a registered trademark, or closely resembles one, belonging to someone else, you need their written consent. What is typically required:

1. A copy of the trademark certificate

1. A No Objection Certificate from the trademark proprietor, permitting use of the name for your company

1. Where the proprietor is a company, the NOC supported by a board resolution

1. KYC documents of the person signing on the proprietor’s behalf

If the trademark is your own, attach the certificate or the application evidence showing you own it.

There is no way around this. An application relying on someone else’s mark without consent will be refused, and a name that somehow slips through leaves you building a brand you can be forced to abandon.

When the name contains a restricted word

Certain words require clearance before they can appear in a company name:

Attach the clearance with the application. Applying first and hoping to supply it later does not work, and the categories above are illustrative rather than a complete list, so check the current rule if your name sits anywhere near a regulated activity.

When an existing company is changing its name

A change of name is a different route, through the RUN service, and it carries its own documents: the board resolution approving the proposed name, and later the special resolution of the members, together with the filings that follow approval.

When a company or body corporate is a subscriber

Where a company will subscribe to the shares of the new company, expect to provide its certificate of incorporation, its PAN, and KYC documents for the authorised signatory, signed and stamped. That is strictly a Part B requirement rather than a name reservation one, but it is worth collecting at the same time.

The practical point

The documents are not the hard part. Knowing that you need one is. Most refused applications are not refused because someone failed to attach a form. They are refused because the applicant never checked the trademark register and did not know a consent was required at all.

Run the trademark search before you file. Our article on checking name availability covers the full screen.

How Northrop LLP helps

Northrop LLP runs the trademark and MCA searches, tells you whether your name needs a consent or a clearance, drafts the NOC where one is obtainable, and files the reservation with the right attachments.