Information date: 22 October 2026 — China runs a self-declaration regime for company names: the applicant submits the proposed name through the national enterprise name declaration system, the system checks it against the national name database, and the same name is examined again at registration. A compliant name is built as administrative division plus trade name plus industry term plus organisational form, with no restricted or prohibited wording. Knowing that statement is not enough for an operating, research or compliance decision. The team must first establish who and what it applies to, how the effect reaches the real process, and which evidence would justify action.
Verified facts and scope
China runs a self-declaration regime for company names: the applicant submits the proposed name through the national enterprise name declaration system, the system checks it against the national name database, and the same name is examined again at registration. A compliant name is built as administrative division plus trade name plus industry term plus organisational form, with no restricted or prohibited wording.
Applies to wholly foreign-owned companies, Sino-foreign joint ventures and branch names, and to the Chinese trade name that will carry a foreign brand. Confirm before filing: whether the trade name is a transliteration or translation of the parent mark, whether the parent holds a Chinese trademark registration in the relevant classes, whether terms such as 中国, 中华, 国家, 国际, 集团 or 控股 appear, and whether the industry term matches the business scope actually being registered.
How the effect reaches operations
The automated check is a similarity filter over the national name database; it approves nothing. Human examiners then apply the prohibited-wording rules — political, religious, misleading or licensing-linked terms such as 银行, 保险, 证券, 基金 — and compare the trade name against existing names in the same industry and administrative division. A name that clears the online check can therefore still be rejected days later at the registration window.
The recurring misjudgements: treating a green online result as approval; assuming a roman-letter trade name is freely usable; adding 国际 or 控股 to sound larger without the qualifications the examiner expects; and picking a trade name that collides with a Chinese trademark, which surfaces later as an opposition or a forced rebrand after the business licence has been issued.
For “Tool: Screening a Proposed Company Name Before Registration — Structure Rules, Restricted Words and Common Rejection Reasons for Foreign Investors”, official rules or published findings, direct evidence from the relevant product or process, and assumptions that remain untested should be recorded separately. A broad source defines the external boundary; it does not replace batch records, protocols, contracts, labels or direct observations.
Decision
If the parent mark is registered in China and the trade name matches it, file the name with the trademark evidence attached. If the mark is unregistered or the trade name is a new coinage, prepare three candidates and check each against the trademark register before submitting. If the candidate contains 中国, 国际, 集团 or a licensed industry word, treat it as a separate approval track and price in additional weeks.
Implementation checklist
- Prepare three candidate trade names and check each against the trademark register first.
- Keep the industry term aligned with the business scope you will actually register.
- Do not sign a lease or print signage until the registration window issues the licence.
- Assign one decision owner, one implementation owner and a dated review point for “Tool: Screening a Proposed Company Name Before Registration — Structure Rules, Restricted Words and Common Rejection Reasons for Foreign Investors”.
- For “Tool: Screening a Proposed Company Name Before Registration — Structure Rules, Restricted Words and Common Rejection Reasons for Foreign Investors”, archive the source page, access date, applicable population or entity, and internal evidence both supporting and opposing the current decision.
- When a rule, formulation, supplier, protocol or observed result changes, reopen only the affected question in “Tool: Screening a Proposed Company Name Before Registration — Structure Rules, Restricted Words and Common Rejection Reasons for Foreign Investors”.
Evidence and review
For “Tool: Screening a Proposed Company Name Before Registration — Structure Rules, Restricted Words and Common Rejection Reasons for Foreign Investors”, start with one real case rather than an abstract checklist. Record the input version, responsible owner, start time, observed result and stop condition. If the team cannot complete “Prepare three candidate trade names and check each against the trademark register first.” with current evidence, it should not expand the process to more products, patients, suppliers or markets. The first review should focus only on facts capable of changing the decision.
The second control follows “Keep the industry term aligned with the business scope you will actually register.”. Keep the source date, applicable population or entity, deadline, cost effect and owner in the same evidence file. A wording preference does not justify a new version. A repeated discrepancy, an unsupported health claim or a regulatory mismatch does: correct that point and hold release until the evidence is available.
After “Do not sign a lease or print signage until the registration window issues the licence.”, compare the intended outcome with what actually happened. Apply the same success criteria to each later expansion. If only one number, date or responsibility changes, update that field and the affected conclusion instead of recreating evidence that remains valid. This keeps the decision traceable without turning review into an open-ended rewrite cycle.
Limits of the conclusion
This screening framework summarises public naming rules and administrative practice; it is not a legal opinion, does not guarantee that a name will be accepted, and does not replace a trademark clearance search or advice on licensing-linked wording.
