Arizona Registrar of Contractors

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Name Availability - Selecting Your Company Name

The Name Availability Rule expressed below and how the Registrar uses the rule to approve names is not a difficult process. To be approved for a name all you have to do is the following:

  1. Review the information below;
  2. On the Name Request & Availability Form, provide us with three (3) potential names for your entity, in order of preference, that you would be comfortable using for your business.
  3. The first available name will then be reserved for you for a period of 90 days.
We strongly encourage you to receive approval of a name through our Agency "before" seeking this through the Arizona Corporation Commission and Secretary of State as our standards of approval are much more stringent."

R4-9-109 NAME OF LICENSEE OR APPLICANT

  1. A licensee shall do business under the name on the license issued and ensure that the same name is used on the license bond.
  2. If a corporation is doing business in the name of a division or using a trade name, the corporation shall ensure that all names are shown on any application.
  3. If applying for a license or a name change, a corporation shall submit written evidence that it is in good standing or that the new name has been filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission.
  4. The Registrar shall grant a request for name change if there is no change in the legal entity, the name is available, and the request is submitted in writing, together with the required license fee and a cash deposit or bond rider that reflects the name change.
  5. The Registrar may elect to reject an application, refuse to issue a license, or deny the name change of an existing license, based on a review of whether the proposed name is identical or so similar to that of an existing licensee or license applicant that it may cause confusion.
  6. The Registrar shall not accept an application or issue a license if it contains the name of a building trade or craft for which the contractor is not qualified.

The general purpose of restricting similar names is to avoid confusion to the public. Confusion has caused wrong billings and complaints, and misinformation provided to the public. To avoid confusion, the following guidelines should be used when choosing a company name.

  1. Name Similarities: Names that are so similar that would cause confusion to the public are not available.

    Examples:

    1. Construction, contract, constructors, contracting
    2. Build, built, builder, building, builders
    3. Develop, developers, development NOTE: Can only be used by KB-1, KB-2, B-1, B-2 or B classifications ONLY
    4. Enterprise, enterprises
    5. Refrigeration, air Conditioning, A/C, cooling, heating, HVAC, ventilating, mechanical
    6. Electric, electrical, electrician
    7. Southwest, south west, SW, southwestern
    8. Air, aire
    9. Remodel, restoration, repair
  2. Entity Endings: Words and abbreviations that are required to identify the type of business entity are disregarded when considering name availability and do NOT qualify a name as distinguishable. This includes abbreviated forms of the identifiers as well as foreign language equivalents. Thus, names otherwise identical except for the presence of any of the following words or abbreviations shall not be considered distinguishable:

    1. Identifiers: "Corporation," "Company," "Incorporated," "Limited," "Co.," "Ltd.," Corp.," "Inc.," "Limited Partnership," "Limited Liability Company," "Limited Company," "LLC," "LC," "Registered Limited Liability Partnership," "LLP", "Professional Corporation" "Professional Service Corporation," "PSC," "PLLC," and "PLC", "Professional Association", "P.A.", "Service Corporation", "S.C.", "Chartered".

      Examples: "Business Machine Company", "Business Machine Company, Inc.", "Business Machine Corporation", "Business Machine LLC", "Business Machine Limited Partnership".
    2. A name may NOT be comprised only of identifiers listed above.

      Example: "Limited Service Company", “Incorporated” or “Corporation”.
    3. Foreign corporations: "Words or abbreviations of like import in another language".

      Example: "Los Gatos S.A., Inc." is NOT distinguishable from "Los Gatos Inc.”.
  3. And: "&" and "And" are NOT distinguishable. Names otherwise identical except for the presence of "and" or the ampersand symbol (&) or just a space between words shall not be considered distinguishable.

    Example: “Run and Gun Enterprises” is NOT distinguishable from “Run & Gun Enterprises”
  4. Articles: Articles of speech (a, an, the) do NOT make a name distinguishable.

    Examples:

    1. "Carpet Universe" is NOT distinguishable from "The Carpet Universe"
    2. "The Bates Drywall" is NOT distinguishable from "Bates Drywall"
    3. "An Eagle's Eye Remodeling" is NOT distinguishable from "Eagle's Eye Remodeling".
  5. Possessives: The possessive form of a word is NOT distinguishable from the plural.

    Examples: "Hill's General Contracting" is NOT distinguishable from "Hills General Contracting".
  6. Marks of punctuation & Differences in the use of Special Characters: Commas, periods, apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes, exclamation points, question marks, Asterisk, backslash, left brace, right brace, caret, greater than, less than, number sign, underscore, tilde and all other marks of punctuation appearing in trade names are disregarded when considering name availability and do not qualify a name as being distinguishable. These marks will not appear as part of the company name: quotation marks (“”); period (.); semicolon (;); exclamation (!); apostrophe (‘); back slash (\); pipe (|); question mark (?): parenthesis (); forward slash (/); hyphen (-); ellipsis ("); comma(,); brackets ([ ], { } <>); underscore(_); carrot (^); colon (:); accent (`); dotted line(--); asterisk (*); greater/less than (< >) or any other special characters.

    Examples:

    1. "CD Construction" is NOT distinguishable from "C-D Construction"
    2. "Profit: Possible" is NOT distinguishable from "Profit Possible"
    3. "Bob's" is NOT distinguishable from "Bobs"
    4. "Let's Sell" is NOT distinguishable from “Let's Sell!"
  7. Roman and Arabic numbers are NOT distinguishable from words representing the numbers.

    Examples:

    1. "Two Guys with Hammers Co." is NOT distinguishable from"2 Guys with Hammers"
    2. "Ink Holdings #3" is NOT distinguishable from "Ink Holdings No. Three"
    3. "First Alert" is NOT distinguishable from"1st Alert"
    4. "Brian's One to One Remodel" is NOT distinguishable from "Brian's 1-2-1 Remodel"
    5. “Mark 4 Building” is NOT distinguishable from “Mark IV Building”.
  8. Word spacing or combining: A proposed name is deemed to not be distinguishable because of the addition or subtraction of spaces.

    Examples:

    1. "Twin State Electric" is NOT distinguishable from "Twinstate Electric"
    2. "Mid Co" is NOT distinguishable from "MidCo"
    3. "Hilltop Plumbing" is NOT distinguishable from "Hill Top Plumbing"
    4. “Outbound Landscapes" is NOT distinguishable from "Out Bound Landscapes"
    5. ”Northwest Homes" is NOT distinguishable from "North West Homes”
    6. "Sidewalk Sales" is NOT distinguishable from "Side Walk Sales"
  9. The use of upper and lower case of letters within a company name are disregarded when considering name availability. Thus, names otherwise identical except for difference in the use of upper and lower case shall not be considered distinguishable.

    Examples:

    1. "Azleads" is NOT distinguishable from "AZLEADS"
    2. “McArthur Plumbing” is NOT distinguishable from “Mcarthur Plumbing”
  10. False implication of Government Affiliation: The name may not be one that might falsely imply governmental affiliation, local, state, or federal or any sub-division thereof without authorization to register such a name.

    Examples:

    1. "Arizona State Carpenters Association"
    2. "I.R.S. Collections"
  11. Grossly Offensive, Obscene or Names that have an illegal connotation: Names that contain words, phrases or references that are clearly derogatory to a particular group of people, such as gender, ethnic group, religious group, race etc., are commonly understood to have a profane meaning or usage, or that inappropriately promote abusive or unlawful activity will not be acceptable.
  12. World-wide web prefix (www) or suffix (.com, .org, .net etc.): The addition of a worldwide web prefix or suffix is not distinguishable.

    Examples:

    1. "roofsrus.com" is NOT distinguishable from "roofsrus.org"
    2. "www.Roofs.com" is NOT distinguishable from "HTTP//roofs.org"
  13. Abbreviations: Abbreviations and unabbreviated versions of the same words are NOT distinguishable

    Examples:

    1. "The Wizard of Oz. Measuring Tape" is NOT distinguishable from "The Wizard of Ounces Measuring Tape"
    2. "Mister Softy" is NOT distinguishable from "Mr. Softie"
    3. "St. Andrew's Awnings" is NOT distinguishable from "Saint Andrew's Awnings"
    4. “Mt. Washington Homes" is NOT distinguishable from "Mount Washington Homes"
    5. "Easy Technology" is NOT distinguishable from "Easy Tech", “Easy Tec”, or Easy Tek”
  14. Different spellings of proper names are NOT distinguishable.

    Examples:

    1. Bird Plumbing, Byrd Plumbing, Burd Plumbing
    2. Smith Construction, Smyth Construction, Smythe Construction
    3. Kelly Painting, Kelley Painting, Kellie Painting
    4. Crispy Cream, Krispy Kream
  15. Unique or Improper Spelling: A proposed name is NOT distinguishable from an existing registration if the unique, archaic, or improper spelling of a word or words makes up the difference.

    Examples:

    1. B-4 the Fall, B4 the Fall, Before the Fall
    2. Kwik Konstruction, Quick Construction, Qwik Construction
    3. Brown Dog Murals, Brown Dawg Crafts
    4. Bow Tie Roofs, Beau Tie Roofs
  16. The following letters and specific symbols are NOT converted to the word/number equivalent and are NOT distinguishable: A-Z, % , $ @ , #, + , = ,

    Examples:

    1. "Dollar Store" is NOT distinguishable from"$ Store"
    2. "Plus Value Market" is NOT distinguishable from "+ Value Market"
  17. Foreign language company names: Words in a foreign language are not translated into English, but must consist of letters in the Roman alphabet, Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.), or symbols capable of being readily reproduced by the Division.

    Examples:

    1. "Rio Verde" is distinguishable from " Green River"
    2. "Evangelical Church" is distinguishable from " Evangelico Church"
    3. "El Burrito" is distinguishable from "The Burrito" or"Burrito"
  18. Doing Business As (DBA) names: DBA names may be used but must follow the same guidelines above. If using a DBA in conjunction with a company name registered with the AZ Secretary of State of AZ Corporation Commission, both names must be listed on all application documents, including the bond, and all advertising.

    Examples:

    1. Smith’s Painting, LP DBA Joe’s Painting
    2. AJ’s Plumbing, LLC (FN) DBA Alan’s Rooter Service
    3. Smith’s HVAC, Inc. DBA Smith Air

The following items DO make a name distinguishable from another name on the record:

  1. Key Words. If one of the key words is different. A "key word" means any word other than articles, prepositions, conjunctions or entity identifiers, such as "corporation", "incorporated", "company," etc.
    2. Example: “Mary's Creations” is distinguishable from "Mary's Delights"

  2. The use of geographical designations may make a name distinguishable. A copy of the complete franchise agreement must be submitted.
    3. Example: “Plumbing Masters of West Phoenix” is distinguishable from “Plumbing Masters of Northern Arizona”



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