Articles of Incorporation

A company's articles — the articles of incorporation, articles of association or charter, and in Germany the Gesellschaftsvertrag — are its founding rule book. They say what the company is called, where it is based, what it may do, how its capital is divided into shares, how shareholders meet and vote, who runs the company and for how long, when the financial year ends and what happens if the company is wound up. Registries, banks and investors read them to understand how the company works.

This is a template, not a filing form. Every country has its own way to register a company: a prescribed form or online portal, model articles that apply by default, a notary who certifies or records the document, a minimum capital and mandatory contents. The template gathers the points that articles usually cover and turns the numbers you enter — shares, nominal value, meeting periods, majorities — into clauses, and it adds up the shares the founders take against the number the articles provide for. Use it as a first draft to discuss with your adviser or notary. The country versions follow the structure each system expects: a Korean 정관 in chapters with the matters article 289 of the Commercial Act lists, a Japanese 定款, a German GmbH Gesellschaftsvertrag, UK articles that sit on top of the model articles, and a US certificate of incorporation with Delaware as an example only.

• You are founding a company with partners and want a draft to take to a lawyer, notary or registry.
• You want to see how share classes, transfer rules and voting majorities turn into clauses before you decide.
• You are comparing how the same company would be set up under Korean, Japanese, German, UK or US rules.
• You need to update your articles and want a clean structure to start from.

1. Enter the name, the registered office and the business purposes, or choose any lawful business where the country allows it.
2. Enter the shares: how many, the nominal value if any, and whether there is a second class with its own rights.
3. Choose how shares can be transferred and set the meeting periods, notice and majorities.
4. List the founders with their addresses and the shares they take; the form adds them up and compares them with the total.
5. Pick the country, read its notes on what the registry requires, and take the draft to your adviser, notary or registry.

• Treating the printout as the document to file. Registries usually require their own form, a notary or a prescribed format.
• Choosing purposes that are too narrow, so a new activity needs an amendment, or too vague for a registry that wants them specific.
• Setting majorities or notice periods below what the law allows in your country.
• Letting founders take more shares than the articles provide for, or forgetting the nominal value.
• Putting personal identification numbers into a shared draft; add them only on the final signed copy where the law asks for them.

1. Fill in
2. Check the preview
3. Save as PDF, Word or Excel

Pick the country you need. Each version uses the wording and layout commonly found there; a version marked “check with local advice” should be read by someone who knows the local rules before it is used.

• International (XX): Written in English, Korean, Japanese, German
• United States (US): Written in English – check with local advice
• United Kingdom (GB): Written in English – check with local advice
• Korea (KR): Written in Korean, English – check with local advice
• Japan (JP): Written in Japanese, English – check with local advice
• Germany (DE): Written in German, English – check with local advice