§303. Name of authorized foreign corporation

A. No certificate of authority shall hereafter be issued to a foreign corporation unless its corporate name:

(1) Contains the word "Corporation", "Incorporated" or "Limited," or an abbreviation of any of these words, or the word "Company" or the abbreviation "Co." if not immediately preceded by "and" or "&", or unless the corporation shall, for use in this state, add at the end of its name one of such words or abbreviations;

(2) Does not contain any word or phrase which indicates or implies that it is organized for any purpose other than one or more of the purposes contained in its articles or certificate of incorporation, or that it is authorized or empowered to conduct the business of banking, insurance underwriting or operating a homestead or building and loan association, or to engage in the practice of law; and

(3) Is not, subject to the exceptions provided in R.S. 12:1-401(C), the same as or nondistinguishable upon the records of the secretary of state from the name of any business or nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of this state or of any foreign corporation authorized to transact business in this state, a trade name registered with the secretary of state, or a name the exclusive right to which is, at the time, reserved in the manner provided in Chapter 1 of this Title. In order to obviate this objection, a corporation may add some distinguishing term to its name for use in this state. No corporation shall include the phrase "doing business as" or the abbreviation "d/b/a" as part of the distinguishing term.

B. Whenever a foreign corporation which is authorized to transact business in this state, shall on or after January 1, 1969, change its name to one under which a certificate of authority would not be granted to it on application therefor, the certificate of authority of such corporation shall be deemed suspended, and it shall not thereafter transact any business in this state until it has changed its name to a name which is available to it under the laws of this state or until it has added some distinguishing term upon the records of the secretary of state to its name for use in this state.

C. Nothing in this Section shall abrogate or limit the law as to unfair competition or unfair practice in the use of trade names, nor derogate from the principles of law or the statutes of this state or of the United States with respect to the right to acquire and protect trade names.

Acts 1968, No. 105, §1; Acts 1983, No. 88, §1; Acts 1989, No. 654, §1, eff. July 7, 1989; Acts 2001, No. 631, §1; Acts 2018, No. 560, §2, eff. May 28, 2018.