Companies Act
(Chapter 50, Section 27(2D))
Companies (Identical Names) Rules
R 3
G.N. No. S 18/2003

REVISED EDITION 2005
(31st March 2005)
[13th January 2003]
Citation
1.  These Rules may be cited as the Companies (Identical Names) Rules.
Names and change of names of companies
2.  For the purposes of sections 27 and 28 of the Act —
(a)in determining whether one name is identical to another, the following shall be disregarded:
(i)“The”, where it is the first word of the name;
(ii)“Private”, “Pte”, “Sendirian”, “Sdn”, “Limited”, “Ltd”, “Berhad” and “Bhd”;
(iii)the following words and expressions where they appear at the end of the name, except where the corporations concerned are related to each other within the meaning of section 6 of the Act:
“company”, “and company”, “corporation”, “Incorporated”, “Asia”, “Asia Pacific”, “International”, “Singapore”, “South Asia”, “South East Asia” and “Worldwide”;
(iv)any word or expression which, in the opinion of the Registrar, is intended to represent any word or expression in sub-paragraph (iii), except where the corporations concerned are related to each other within the meaning of section 6 of the Act;
(v)the plural version of the name;
(vi)type and case of letters, spacing between letters and punctuation marks; and
(b)the symbol “&” shall have the same meaning as the word “and”.
Mediation
3.  The Registrar may, with a view to resolving any dispute under section 27(2A) of the Act, refer the parties involved to mediation before giving any direction under that section.