Aiming to use all characters of the Latin alphabet for creating company names

Today, the Government approved the proposal of the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation to allow companies registered in Lithuania to form their names in a foreign language using letters of the Latin alphabet. These amendments to the Civil Code and the Law on the State Language still have to be approved by the Seimas.

‘In Lithuania, only companies related with a foreign legal entity could use the Latin alphabet to form names in a foreign language. These names in foreign languages are however also relevant to other companies, especially those engaged in cross-border businesses, including exporting companies and start-ups. Since a large number of businesses operate in the global market, the elimination of the present artificial obstacle could allow Lithuania to finally get closer to the standard of other EU Member States, which has long allowed to register company names in Latin characters,’ said Minister of the Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė.

At present, the Latin characters are allowed to be used for company names in 21 out of 27 EU Member States, including Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany. It is estimated that by 2019, as much as 10 % of company names presented for registration were rejected due to the requirements in force; therefore, companies were forced to register abroad leading our state to losing taxes and economic potential.

Therefore, today’s amendments to the laws to be still considered by the Seimas would have a positive impact on favourable business conditions and development as company names formed in Latin characters will be easier to understand and recognise equally opening up more opportunities for the international competitiveness of Lithuanian companies.