I.Requirements to a legal name
Russian Legal Entities
According to the Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation the following requirements are established for corporate names of organizations.
The corporate name of a legal entity shall not include:
1. Full or abbreviated names of the Russian Federation, foreign states, as well as words derived from such names;
2. Full and abbreviated official names of federal state authorities, state authorities of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local government bodies;
3. Full or abbreviated names of international and inter-governmental organizations;
4. Full or abbreviated names of public associations;
5. Designations counter to the public interests, as well as human and moral principles.
Inclusion of the official name of the Russian Federation, as well as words deriving from this name, in the corporate name of a company is allowed given the permission of the Government of the Russian Federation, if over seventy per cent of the shares in the company belong to the Russian Federation. Such permission is issued without indication of a term of validity and may be revoked in the event of disappearance of the circumstances by virtue of which it was issued. The procedure for issuing and revoking permits is established by law. In the event of revocation of the permission to include the official name of the Russian Federation, as well as words deriving from this name, in the corporate name of a company, the company shall within a period of three months introduce corresponding amendments into its articles of association. Use of the word "Moscow" or words and phrases formed on the basis of it (including abbreviations), as well as names of districts of Moscow or words and phrases formed on the basis of them in the company name is possible only with permission of the Interdepartmental Commission of the Moscow Government in the form of a permit on the right to use the state symbols of Moscow.
The attention should be also paid to the following:
· The corporate name of a legal entity is determined in its constituent documents and is included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities when the legal entity is registered.
· The corporate name of a legal entity shall contain an indication of its organizational and legal form and the actual name of the legal entity, which may not consist only of words indicating a type of activity.
· A legal entity must have a full corporate name and may have an abbreviated one in Russia. The legal entity is also entitled to a full and (or) abbreviated corporate name in languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation and (or) foreign languages.
The corporate name of a legal entity in Russian and languages of peoples of the Russian Federation may contain borrowings from foreign languages transliterated into the Russian alphabet or, correspondingly, the languages of peoples of the Russian Federation, with the exception of terms and abbreviations reflecting the organizational and legal form of the legal entity.
In the event of inconsistency between the corporate name of a legal entity and the abovementioned requirements, the authority responsible for state registration of legal entities shall have the right to enter a suit against such as legal entity to compel it to change its corporate name.
Branch and Representative Offices
The name of the branch or representative office is formed exclusively from the name and organizational form of the foreign legal entity.
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