Company stamps around the world: where they are expected, and where they are not

9 September 2026 · Stamp-Seal

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This is the company stamp by country: what it is called, whether anybody expects one, and what it has to say. Whether it matters at all depends on where the document is going. The same round mark carries a different name and a very different weight from one market to the next.

This describes common commercial practice rather than the law of any country. Where a document matters, the requirement is set by the authority or counterparty asking for it.

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China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: the company chop

The company chop is the strongest example anywhere. In mainland practice the chop, not a signature, is what binds a company, and a document without one is often treated as unsigned. Companies keep several: a legal-representative chop, a finance chop, an invoice chop, a contract chop, each held by a different person for exactly that reason. Traditionally red.

Japan and Korea: the hanko and the dojang

The hanko (or inkan) is a personal and corporate seal used where a Western signature would be. Registered seals carry legal weight for company filings and property matters. Practice is shifting towards digital in both markets, and the seal remains normal.

India, Ireland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya and much of the Commonwealth

The common seal comes from English company law, and although the legal requirement has been relaxed or removed in many of these jurisdictions, the practice has not gone away. Banks, registrars, tender boards and schools still ask. Marks typically carry the registered name and the company registration number.

The United Kingdom

The common seal stopped being required decades ago. What survives is a general company stamp used on invoices and correspondence, and the occasional counterparty or overseas bank that asks for a seal because their own market expects one.

The United States: the corporate seal in the USA

A corporate seal is optional in every state, and the signature is what does the work. Seals still appear on stock certificates, corporate resolutions and some bank forms, mostly because a form has a circle printed on it. Notary seals are a different matter: those are regulated per state, and the state says what goes on them.

Germany, Austria and Switzerland

The Firmenstempel is not legally required and is used constantly: on invoices, delivery notes, forms and letters. It usually carries the company name, address, tax number and contact details, which makes it closer to an address stamp than to a seal.

France, Spain, Italy and Portugal

The cachet or sello appears on invoices, receipts and administrative forms, and is expected on documents submitted to public bodies even where nothing requires it.

The Gulf states

Company stamps are used heavily on invoices, letters and government submissions, generally showing the trade licence number, and in both Arabic and English.

A company stamp that works in every country you trade with

Put the registered name and the registration number on the mark, in the language the reader uses, and keep it consistent. That mark satisfies most markets that expect a stamp and costs nothing in the ones that do not.

One rule holds in every market on this list: only make the mark your own organisation is entitled to use. A stamp carrying somebody else's registered name or a licence number you do not hold is forgery wherever you file it, and the countries that treat the seal most seriously are the ones that treat faking it most seriously.

Questions people ask

Which countries require a company stamp?

Very few require one by statute today. What varies is expectation: in China a registered chop is central to how a company acts, in Japan the hanko is still ordinary, in India, Ireland and much of the Commonwealth the common seal survives on deeds and share certificates, and in the United States almost nothing asks for one.

What is the difference between a company chop and a seal?

A company chop is the Chinese company seal, so they are the same object under two names, but the chop carries more weight than a signature does: a document bearing the chop can bind the company. An official one must be carved by a licensed engraver and registered with the Public Security Bureau.

Is there a custom company chop maker online?

In the editor, and it is also a circular company seal maker online, free to design and preview: a circular company seal with the registered name around the ring, the star in the centre and the Unified Social Credit Code beneath it. A Chinese company chop generator produces an image, and an official chop must still be carved by a licensed engraver and registered with the Public Security Bureau.

Do American companies use a corporate seal?

Some keep a corporate seal for legal documents, and no state requires it. Where it appears it is because a bank, a title company or a transfer agent asked, rather than because the law did.

What should a stamp say if we trade in several countries?

The registered name and the registration number, in the language the reader uses, kept consistent across documents. That satisfies most markets that expect a stamp and costs nothing in the ones that do not.

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