Business names, trademarks, DBAs and domains
Updated . General information, not legal or tax advice.
Four different systems govern business names, and none of them checks the others. A name can pass the state’s entity check and still infringe a trademark, duplicate a county DBA, or have its .com taken years ago.
State entity name
Filing an LLC or corporation registers its legal name in one state. The state only checks that the name is distinguishable from others on its own records. It doesn’t look at trademarks, other states, or names businesses use informally.
Trademarks
Trademark rights come from using a name to sell goods or services, and are strengthened by registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or a state. Someone with prior rights can stop you using a confusingly similar name in the same market, even if your state registration is valid. Federal registrations are searchable in the USPTO Trademark Search system. Unregistered marks don’t appear anywhere central, so also search the web and app stores for businesses already using the name. For anything you’ll invest in heavily, a trademark attorney’s clearance search is worth considering.
Assumed names and DBAs
An assumed name (also called a DBA, trade name or fictitious name) lets a business operate under a name other than its legal one. Depending on the state, DBAs are filed with the Secretary of State, with counties, or both. Several states don’t check DBAs for conflicts at all, and a DBA usually doesn’t stop someone else from forming an entity with that name. Each state page says where DBAs are filed. Our searches include DBAs only where the state includes them in the same database, as South Dakota and Oregon do.
Domain names and social handles
Domains are registered with private registrars, first come first served, with no connection to state filings. A registry “not registered” result can still hide a premium price or a reserved name, so confirm with a registrar.
Licenses and regulated words
Some professions and industries need a license, and some words (“bank,” “insurance,” “engineering,” “CPA”) need approval from a regulator before a state will accept them. Our name check flags the restricted words each state publishes.