Historically corporate seals were used to mark legal documents and instruments of a corporation or a company. The mandatory use of corporate seal to legalize documents was abolished in many states in early twentieth century. A company or a corporation may adopt a corporate seal but its impression on a document does not affect the validity of the document. Some banks or other financial institutions may insist on affixing the corporate seal in legal documents. Interestingly, Alaska statute AS10.06.930 heading Corporate Seal as Evidence states that ‘The presence of a corporate seal on a writing purporting to be executed by authority of corporation shall be prima facie evidence that the writing was executed with the authority of the corporation’. That is the extent to which a corporate seal may be used in that state.
Corporate seals can be used as a mark in official documents like that of your company logo or colors. Though its legality is moot, it will provide individuality to your company documents. A document carrying a corporate seal will have an official appearance. You may even adopt a resolution to the effect that to render official documents effective, the company seal should be affixed to it. Banks or other lending institutions may put it into practice. But the efficacy of that resolution in a court will have to be tried and seen.
Corporate seals can be made as to emboss or imprint the mark on documents. Or, you can get a rubber corporate seal stamp to do the job. Numerous companies providing corporate kits for the start up of a corporation include corporate seals on request. These corporate kit providers may give you a lot of reasons as to why you should use a corporate seal. However, the decision rests on you as whether to adopt and use a corporate seal.
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