A registration office commonly refers to a government agency that files compulsory information in the public interest.

The most common type of a registration office is a companies registration office

Companies Registration Office

Companies Registration Office can be:*Companies Registration Office *Bolagsverket, Swedish Companies Registration Office*Companies House - England and Wales*Companies and Intellectual Property Commission , South Africa...

 or a trade register

Trade Register

Trade registers in several countries have the same English name:* Finnish Trade Register* German Trade Register- See also :*List of company registers*Companies Registration Office *Bolagsverket, Swedish Companies Registration Office...

 office. In most countries, the trade and company register is freely accessible (list of company registers). Additional commerce registers include patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 registers and trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 registers (e.g. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

United States Patent and Trademark Office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...

).

In countries with compulsory resident registration

Resident registration

The register of residents is a government database containing information on the current residence of persons. In countries where the resident registration is compulsory, the current place of residence must be reported to the Resident Registration Office or the police within a few days after...

 the term registration office is commonly short for resident registration office (e.g. German Meldeamt is short for Einwohnermeldeamt). Additional resident registers include civil registration offices (for birth and marriage) and immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 offices. Access to these registries is often limited, with information being publicly available only in the form of statistical overviews.

There exist a multitude of registers and relevant offices that are incorporated by the government to allow for taxation and to monitor regulations. In some countries, the management of these register databases is handled by a separate agency or it is part of a larger body - e.g. aircraft registration

Aircraft registration

An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...

 or vehicle registration

Vehicle registration

Vehicle registration is the compulsory registration of a vehicle with a government authority. Vehicle registration's purpose is to establish clear ownership and to tax motorists or vehicle owners....

.