The name of the sole proprietorship
The owner of a sole proprietorship has two names. On the one hand, the name of the business (company name) for business relations and, on the other hand, the civil name for normal legal relations (first and last name). When choosing a company name, certain conditions have to be considered.
General criteria for company names
A company name, regardless of its legal form, must always be truthful and not misleading. This means that the name of the company must not be misleading regarding the field of activity of the business. For example, a business could not be called “Müller Bakery” if the activity carried out is house painting. The same applies to the geographical specification: a business based in Geneva could not be called “Müller Bakery Bern”.
In addition, there are certain blocked names and acronyms that may not be used in the name of the company, as well as rules on the spelling of the company name, which are not specifically addressed in this article.
The name of the sole proprietorship must contain the family name
In the case of a sole proprietorship, the owner’s surname must be part of the company name. It is therefore possible to choose a fancy term or a generic term and add the family name. However, it is also sufficient to choose only the family name. Since in this case the civil name and the company name are the same, it may be advisable to add a designation so that customers can get an idea of the activity carried out.
Example:
Peter Müller runs his bakery as a sole proprietorship. Possible company names are, for example:
- Müller
- Peter Müller
- Müller Bakery
- Peter Müller Bakery
- Bakery P. Müller
- P. Müller
Name protection through entry in the commercial register
As soon as your sole proprietorship is entered in the commercial register, its name is protected. After this date, a third party may not use the same or a very similar name for their company in the same place (see below). The company name is considered too similar if there is a real risk of confusion in the normal course of business.
Location means the seat of the company in the relevant municipality (e.g., the city of Geneva), taking into account the economic area that is directly linked to (e.g., Geneva agglomeration).
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