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DBA (Fictitious Business Name)

A registered trade name under which a person or company does business - which tells the public who is behind the name and does nothing else.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

A DBA, short for "doing business as", is a name a business uses that is not its legal name: a sole proprietor trading as a shop name, or an LLC operating a second brand. Most states, and in some states the county, require the name to be registered so that anyone dealing with the business can find out who is legally behind it. The filing is a disclosure requirement, and in many places it is a condition of opening a bank account or suing in the trade name.

What a DBA does not do is the part most often misunderstood. It does not create a separate legal entity: a sole proprietor with a DBA is still personally liable for everything the business does. It does not give the owner any exclusive right to the name; two businesses can register the same DBA in different counties, and registering one gives no protection against a third party who holds a trademark in that name. And it does not change tax treatment.

The exclusive right to a business name comes, if at all, from trademark law - from actually using the name to identify goods or services, and from registration. A business that wants a name it can stop others from using needs a trademark clearance and a trademark strategy, not a DBA filing.

Where this comes from

Assumed-name or fictitious-name registration is required by state statute, and the filing office, renewal rules and publication requirements vary by state and sometimes by county - California's requirement, for example, is at Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17900 and following. There is no federal DBA registry. Rights in the name itself arise under the federal Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 and following, and state trademark and unfair-competition law.

When people hire a lawyer for this

A DBA filing itself rarely needs a lawyer. The moment that does is choosing the name: a clearance search before printing signs costs a fraction of a rebrand after a demand letter from someone who holds the trademark, and a DBA filing that went through without objection is no evidence the name was clear.

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.