(1) The secretary of state provides information regarding centrally filed uniform     commercial code records from requests to office staff and via the secretary of state website. These searches are certified for their accuracy.

(2) Searches provided by the secretary of state are "exact name" searches. Only the precise name requested, with very little variation, is searched and certified.

(3) The basic standards for searching individual and entity names are that:

(a) there is no limit to the number of matches that are returned in response to a search request;

(b) no distinction is made between upper and lower case letters;

(c) punctuation marks and accents are disregarded; and

(d) spaces in any field are disregarded.

(4) Basic standards for searching individual names include:

(a) exact match of surnames and exact match of first names; and

(b) middle names become an initial or blank space.

(5) Basic standards for searching business names include:

(a) an exact match of the name requested;

(b) "the" at the beginning of a name is disregarded;

(c) words and abbreviations that indicate the existence or nature of an entity are disregarded. These include:

(i) association;

(ii) assn;

(iii) business trust;

(iv) chartered;

(v) chtd;

(vi) co;

(vii) company;

(viii) co-op;

(ix) cooperative;

(x) corp;

(xi) corporations;

(xii) credit union;

(xiii) cu;

(xiv) fcu;

(xv) federal credit union;

(xvi) federal savings bank;

(xvii) fsb;

(xviii) gp;

(xix) general partnership;

(xx) inc;

(xxi) incorporated;

(xxii) joint stock company;

(xxiii) joint venture

(xxiv) jsc;

(xxv) jv;

(xxvi) lc;

(xxvii) limited;

(xxviii) limited company;

(xxix) limited liability company;

(xxx) limited liability limited partnership;

(xxxi) limited partnership;

(xxxii) llc;

(xxxiii) lllp;

(xxxiv) llp;

(xxxv) lp;

(xxxvi) ltd;

(xxxvii) ltd co;

(xxxviii) na;

(xxxix) national association;

(xl) pa;

(xli) partnership;

(xlii) pc;

(xliii) plc;

(xliv) pllc;

(xlv) professional association;

(xlvi) professional corporation;

(xlvii) professional limited company;

(xlviii) professional limited liability company;

(xlix) registered limited liability partnership

(l) rllp;

(li) sa;

(lii) savings association; and

(liii) trust.

(6) A search of the secretary of state's database will not result in accurate findings if:

(a) first or last names are misspelled;

(b) non-universal identifiers are in the name and not included in the search request, such as "a Montana corporation" or "a general partnership";

(c) nicknames or shortened versions of names, i.e., if the debtor's first name is filed as "Robert," the search will not result in finding "Bob"; or

(d) plurals are used in the search but not in original filing.

(7) A search limited to a particular city may not reveal all filings against the debtor searched and the searcher bears the risk of relying on such search.