Renaming a company / Question 5
What changes in the register, on paper and in contracts?
Intelligence, not legal advice. Screening is a starting point, not a clearance opinion.
The company decides the new name, the register enters it and the SHAB publishes it: from that day the new name is in force, and nobody can claim not to know it. Letters, order forms and invoices must then carry it in full. The company stays the same legal entity, with the same identification number.
01 / The decision
A change to the articles.
The name of a company limited by shares (AG) or a limited liability company (GmbH) is set in its articles of association. (OR Arts. 626 and 776) A resolution to change the articles must be recorded in a public deed and entered in the commercial register. (OR Arts. 647 and 780)
An AG or a GmbH may choose its name freely within the general rules, but the name must state the legal form. (OR Art. 950) A sole proprietor’s business name must be built on the owner’s surname. (OR Art. 945)
Check the new name ↑02 / Entry and publication
In force on publication.
Entries in the commercial register are published electronically in the SHAB and take effect on publication. (OR Art. 936a)
Once a fact is entered, nobody can claim not to have known it. (OR Art. 936b) The entry keeps its business identification number (UID), which never changes. (HRegV Art. 116)
Check the new name ↑03 / Letters, domains, contracts
The full name, where the law asks for it.
Correspondence, order forms, invoices and notices must show the registered name in full and unchanged; short names, logos and signs may be used in addition. (OR Art. 954a)
Domain names sit in neither register: the IPI points to SWITCH for checking them, as a search of its own. (IPI, Carrying out a search yourself) What a contract requires when a party changes its name is a question for the contract and your lawyer.
Check the new name ↑04 / In Antevo
Before the deed, check the name.
The free check screens a name across 50+ trademark registers and lists the marks near it, with office, status and the holder where it is a company. It takes a minute, needs no account, and the answer appears on this page.
Check the new name ↑Sources
Where this comes from.
The count behind the figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal advice, and a trademark attorney or your lawyer confirms whether a new name is free and what a rename means for your contracts.