Federal securities laws may deem certain securities as restricted or control securities. Selling restricted or control securities in the marketplace can be a complicated process. Under federal securities laws, all offers and sales of securities must be registered with the SEC or qualify for some exemption from the registration requirements. If you have acquired restricted securities or hold control securities and want to publicly sell them, you may need to make special efforts to show that your public sales are exempt from registration.
Rule 144 provides an exemption and permits the public resale of restricted or control securities if a number of conditions are met, including how long the securities are held, the way in which they are sold, and the amount that can be sold at any one time. But even if you’ve met the conditions of the rule, you can’t sell your restricted securities to the public until you’ve gotten a transfer agent to remove the legend.