Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing company registration, specifically name registration. It might have been better for me to say reservation than registration but really you can use these words interchangeably under the circumstances.

For those who are looking to set up a Company in Thailand you do have to choose a name and there is something of a cumbersome process associated with reserving and registering the Company's name. What are we talking about here?  Well we are talking about essentially, there is a process of ascertaining through the Ministry of Commerce whether or not a Company's proposed name is in fact unique or novel; novel enough that they will allow it to be registered as a Company name. Essentially two companies can't have the same name obviously and then even then they are trying, it is very similar to kind of trademarking, they are trying to make sure that one name is not abusively similar for lack of a better term to another one. It may not be abusive, there may be no malice intended. It may just simply be a situation where two people independently have very similar names but what they are trying to do is decrease certain levels of confusion within the business community with respect to names of companies. 

So, there is something of a process associated with getting a corporate name registered onto a company and it can be something of an uphill battle to get that done. There are a number of companies here in Thailand that we have dealt with over the years that were just unable to get the name that they really wanted. It was either exactly what somebody else had, that is pretty rare though, or was just too similar to some other name and it just wasn't allowed. So it is going to depend on circumstances but it is definitely possible to get the name that you want. Variations might be required depending on circumstances and those who are looking to set up a company here in Thailand especially foreign nationals, it might not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.