ISSUE-38: Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity

Registered what?

Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity

State:

CLOSED

Product:

Organization Ontology

Raised by:

Phil Archer

Opened on:

2012-10-18

Description:

The WG recently resolved to change the name of the 'Core Business Vocabulary' as the term was considered too broad and misleading. No objections anywhere.

However, it turns out that the choice of what to rename it to was unfortunate. I'd like to resolve this as part of the ORG to LC debate to clarify the relationship with it (although this does not in any way affect ORG itself).

A legal entity can be created in a variety of ways including things like royal charters (BBC), international treaties (UN) and acts of parliament etc. This idea is encapsulated fully in org:FormalOrganization.

The 'business vocabulary' is very specifically about things formed through an act of registration. That's why the identifier issue is so important. You can be a legal entity and not have an identifier. The same is not true for a registered company.

So... the issue is what do we call this so that it reflects what we mean and makes clear the distinction between its primary class and org:FormalOrganization of which it is a sub class.

We want to cover *any* entity, whether for profit or not, that takes on legal status by virtue of being registered with an appropriate authority.

I asked Rigo Wenning (W3C's legal counsel) for advice. He sent his mail to the public list but I see that, for whatever reason, it didn't get added to the archive so I'll post it below. Bottom line: his recommendation is that we call them 'Registered Commercial Entities.'

However... in various internal threads, Sandro makes the point that the word 'Commercial' suggests that we exclude non-profits - which we don't want to do. Taking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation as a reference point and going backwards and forwards, I end up with a small number of suggestions, all of which include the word 'registered' as this is the key point. An issue is the word 'corporate'. Does that only apply to for-profit organisations in your mind? If so, it's wrong. If not, it's probably right.

1. Registered business entity (recommended by Rigo)

2. Registered corporate entity (in line with Sandro's view).

3. Registered legal entity (perhaps a little vague?)

4. Registered business (perhaps seems to exclude non-profits)


Rigo's advice below.


Hi Phil,

you asked me internally on my opinion concerning the classification
and naming of entities in company registers.

My suggestion is to call them 'Registered Commercial Entities'.
Below is a rationale of why I want to call them this way:

You told me some would like to call those "legal entities". But the
concept of legal entity is much broader. It encompasses natural
persons that have legal status by their mere existence and legal
persons that are born out of some social construct like an
association statute or a contract of corporation.

Company registers serve the need for trust in the business world.
They contain among other things essential counts and balance sheets
of companies, their address, status, responsible persons and
liability limitations.

Note that by definition, there can't be a 'Registered Commercial
Entity' registered in the company register that is not a legal
entity. So 'legal entity' is clearly a more general classification
and 'registered commercial entities' are a special subclass of legal
entities with very well defined properties. Those properties depend
on the requirements for registration and can be different from
country to country in the EU. The fact that the legal entity is
registered means they have successfully accomplished a formal
procedure for registration. The fact that an entity was erased from
the register has also a very significant meaning. It tells us that
the entity is out of business.

Please don't hesitate to ask if further questions arise

--
Rigo Wenning
W3C Legal counsel

Related Actions Items:

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Related emails:

1. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from phila@w3.org on 2012-10-22)
2. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from richard@cyganiak.de on 2012-10-21)
3. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from phila@w3.org on 2012-10-18)
4. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from phila@w3.org on 2012-10-18)
5. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from dave.e.reynolds@gmail.com on 2012-10-18)
6. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from james@opennorth.ca on 2012-10-18)
7. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from olyerickson@gmail.com on 2012-10-18)
8. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from phila@w3.org on 2012-10-18)
9. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from olyerickson@gmail.com on 2012-10-18)
10. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from sandro@w3.org on 2012-10-18)
11. Re: ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from dave.e.reynolds@gmail.com on 2012-10-18)
12. ISSUE-38 (Registered what?): Name of the vocab formerly known as Core Business Vocabulary, currently called Legal Entity [Organization Ontology] (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2012-10-18)

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