Company name

Certain rules must be obeyed when looking for a suitable company name. A name and any additional elements (business or brand name, indication of the nature of the business) can only be registered as a company name^{German text} if they are not misleading. Entrepreneurs or their legal representatives must also check the similarity with other trade names or signs, for example by searching the trade mark register, companies register^{German text}, telephone books or the internet (domain name search).

The minimum statutory requirements for company names are:

• Partnerships
  • general partnership^{German text}
  • limited partnership^{German text}

• Corporations
  • private limited company^{German text}
  • public limited company^{German text}

We recommend seeking the opinion of the competent Austrian Federal Economic Chamber regarding the company name. Presenting this opinion when applying for registration in the companies register^{German text} can speed up the registration process^{German text} before the courts.

The forms for this must be requested from the competent economic chamber, completed and returned to it.

Further links

• Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (→ WKO)^{German text}
• Choosing a company name (→ WKO)^{German text}

Legal basis

Sections 17 to 21 of the Unternehmensgesetzbuch (UGB)