“I registered my business name with the state, so the name is mine.”
This is a very common misunderstanding when starting a business, and it is completely understandable. You filed a document with a government office, you paid a fee, and you received a confirmation. That certainly feels like registering a name.
It is just not the kind of registration — or, more importantly, the kind of legal protection — most people think they are getting.
The three registrations, and what each one does
Your LLC or corporate name
This is the legal name of your entity, filed with one state’s Secretary of State. Its job is to identify the entity for legal and tax purposes. It goes on contracts, the bank account, and your tax filings.
What it does. It prevents another entity from forming in that same state under an identical or confusingly similar entity name.
What it does not do. It does not give you any right to the name as a brand, in that state or anywhere else. Another business can use your name as its brand without ever forming an entity under it, and a business in a different state can form and operate under the same name lawfully.
A DBA, or fictitious name
This is a registration stating that an entity or person is doing business under a name other than its legal one. It is your business’s nickname, filed with a state or a county depending on where you are. Florida calls it a fictitious name registration.
What it does. It makes it lawful for you to operate under that nickname, and it lets you open a bank account in it. It is also a disclosure rule — the public should be able to find out who is behind a business name.
What it does not do. It gives you no exclusive rights whatsoever. In most places, multiple businesses can register the same DBA. A DBA is the weakest of the three by a wide margin, and it is the one most often mistaken for ownership.
A federal trademark registration
Filed with the USPTO. Its job is brand protection.
What it does. It gives you the presumptive exclusive right to use that mark nationwide for the goods or services listed in the registration, the ability to stop others using confusingly similar names for related goods or services, the right to use the ® symbol, and a basis for enforcement.
What it does not do. It does not authorize you to operate. It is not a substitute for forming an entity with the Secretary of State, or for filing a DBA.
| LLC or corporate name | DBA | Federal trademark | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filed with | Secretary of State | State or county | USPTO |
| What it is for | Identifying the entity | Disclosing who is behind a name | Protecting a brand |
| Geographic reach | One state | One state or county | Nationwide |
| Exclusive rights to the name | No | No | Yes |
| Lets you operate legally | Yes | Yes | No |
Forming an entity and filing a DBA are about being allowed to operate. A trademark is about owning something.
Why this matters in practice
Here is an illustration of a situation businesses find themselves in. The names are invented.
You form Riverbend Coffee LLC in Florida. You spend three years, and real money, building the brand. Then a company in Oregon that has been using “Riverbend Coffee” since before you started sends you a letter. Or worse: they federally registered the name, and now you are the one infringing — in your own state, under your own LLC name.
Your Florida filing does not help you. That registration was never about brand rights.
The reverse happens too. Someone in another state starts using your name, and you discover you have no mechanism to stop them.
The order to do things in
Search the name first, before anything else. This is the step almost everyone skips, and the only one that is cheap to do and expensive to skip.
Form the entity. An LLC or a corporation, in your state.
File a DBA if you need one — that is, if you will operate under a name different from the entity’s legal name.
File the federal trademark for the brand you are building.
Steps 2 and 3 are what make you legally formed and allowed to operate. Step 4 is about owning and protecting the brand.
Common questions
Do I need all three?
Not necessarily. Many businesses have an entity and a trademark and no DBA, because the brand name and the entity name are the same. Some have all three. Almost nobody needs only a DBA.
Can I trademark my LLC name?
You can apply to register the brand you use in the marketplace. If that happens to be your entity name, yes. It could equally be your DBA, a slogan, or a logo. But you register it as a mark for particular goods or services you offer, not as an entity name — the two are assessed on different criteria. An entity name only has to be distinguishable from other entity names in that state. A trademark has to be distinctive and not confusingly similar to any prior mark nationwide, which is a much higher bar.
What about my domain name?
A domain registration is a contract with a registrar. It gives you no trademark rights, and it does not protect you from someone with prior rights in the name. Owning the domain and owning the brand are separate questions.
What if I only operate in one town?
You may have common law rights from actual use in your local area. Those are real, but they are geographically limited and harder to enforce. They also will not stop someone else from federally registering the name and expanding toward you.
Where to start
Search first, and search properly. Do it before spending time and money developing a brand, rather than after. Our walkthrough of checking whether a name is available covers the six places to look and the variations most people never search.
If you are setting up a business now, our LLC formation page and our flat-fee trademark registration cover the two ends of this.
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This article is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Rules differ by state and change over time. Please speak with a licensed attorney about your own situation.