2.—(1) This regulation sets out the rules for determining whether a business name is identical to —| (a) | any other registered business name, or the name of any corporation or limited partnership referred to in section 17(1)(b) of the Act; | | (b) | any name reserved under any of the provisions referred to in section 17(1)(c) of the Act; | | (c) | any business name, or name of a company, foreign company, limited liability partnership or limited partnership, referred to in section 17(2) of the Act; and | | (d) | any name of a foreign company, or name of a limited partnership, referred to in section 17(3) of the Act. |
(2) Subject to paragraph (4), the following are to be disregarded:| (a) | “The”, where it is the first word of a name; | | (b) | the following words where they appear at the end of a name:| (i) | “Berhad” or “Bhd”; | | (ii) | “Limited” or “Ltd”; | | (iii) | “Limited Liability Partnership” or “LLP”; | | (iv) | “Limited Partnership” or “LP”; | | (v) | “Private” or “Pte”; | | (vi) | “Public Accounting Corporation” or “PAC”; | | (vii) | “Sendirian” or “Sdn”; |
| | (c) | the following words or expressions where they appear at the end of a name:| (i) | “Asia”; | | (ii) | “Asia Pacific”; | | (iii) | “Associates”; | | (iv) | “company” or “and company”; | | (v) | “corporation”; | | (vi) | “Group”; | | (vii) | “Holding” or “Holdings”; | | (viii) | “Incorporated”; | | (ix) | “International”; | | (x) | “Partner” or “Partners”; | | (xi) | “Partnership” or “Partnerships”; | | (xii) | “Singapore”; | | (xiii) | “South Asia”; | | (xiv) | “South East Asia”; | | (xv) | “Trading”; | | (xvi) | “Worldwide”; | | (xvii) | “.co”; | | (xviii) | “.com”; | | (xix) | “.edu”; | | (xx) | “.gov”; | | (xxi) | “.net”; | | (xxii) | “.org”; | | (xxiii) | “.sg”; |
| | (d) | any word or expression which, in the opinion of the Registrar, is intended to represent any word or expression in —| (i) | sub-paragraph (a) or (b); or | | (ii) | sub-paragraph (c); |
| | (e) | the plural version of any name; | | (f) | the type and case of letters, accents, spacing between letters, brackets, parentheses and punctuation marks. |
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| (3) The symbol “&” is to be treated as having the same meaning as the word “and”. |
| (4) Paragraph (2)(c) and (d)(ii) does not apply if the person applying to register or change the business name is the corporation carrying on business or operating under the relevant name. |
| (5) In paragraph (4), “relevant name” means a name which would be identical to a proposed business name after the application of the rules set out in paragraphs (2) and (3). |
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