difference between trade name and llc [Expert Review]

Last updated : Sept 18, 2022

What is the difference between a business name and a trading name?

A 'trading name' refers to an unregistered name that businesses could use before the introduction of the National Business Names Register on 28 May 2012. A trading name is not a registered business name. If you wish to continue using a trading name, you need to register it as a business name.

Should your LLC and business name be the same?

Your LLC name does NOT have to BE your business name or MATCH your website name. Your LLC name is your company's legal entity name while your business name is your brand name to market to your customers.

Can a LLC have same name as trademark?

When you're forming a corporation or an LLC in a state, the name must be unique to your business within that state. Others can form LLCs and businesses in other states that have the same name as yours. If you want to protect your business name across all states, you will need to trademark it.

What is a trade name IRS?

A trade name is used for advertising or trade purposes. A fictitious name (sometimes called a d/b/a or "doing business as" name) is a name registered with your city or county to let people know who owns the business.

Is a trade name a legal entity?

A legal name must be registered with a state government and includes a legal ending, such as an LLC or LLP, after the title. This is used in communicating with the government. A trade name is generally considered the name a business uses for advertising and sales purposes.

Should I use a trading name?

One of the main disadvantages to using a trading name is that you always run the risk that someone else may register your name for their business with Companies House in the future. This could cause huge disruption to your business and potentially damage your reputation and standing with your customer base too.

What name should I use for my LLC?

You can name your LLC anything you want, as long as it complies with your state's guidelines. Naming a business after yourself comes with the benefit of being able to easily use that name to sell any products or services you want in the future without brand confusion.

Should I include LLC in my logo?

No, you do not have to put LLC in your logo or in any of your marketing materials. There is no legal or regulatory requirement to put “LLC” in your logo. Putting “LLC” in your logo does not provide any additional legal protection for your business.

Should you name your LLC after yourself?

Sometimes it makes sense to name your LLC after yourself if you want to grow your personal brand, but in some cases using your personal name can limit your business' growth or even confuse customers.

Why should I trademark my business name?

Registering a trademark helps protect a name or brand from intellectual property theft or misuse as a business grows. You can start the trademarking process on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website.

Can I get sued for having a similar business name?

If you choose a name that is too similar to the name of a competing business, that business may accuse you of infringing on its trademark rights. When that happens, you may be forced to change the name of your business. You may even be ordered to pay monetary damages.

Should I trademark my business name or logo?

Which One Should I Trademark? It depends. Higher value tends to lie in name recognition rather than familiarity of a logo. Since logos change more often than names, it usually makes more sense to register a standard character mark to protect the business moniker itself.

How does the IRS define a trade or business?

The term trade or business generally includes any activity carried on for the production of income from selling goods or performing services. It is not limited to integrated aggregates of assets, activities, and goodwill that comprise businesses for purposes of certain other provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

What is trade name for EIN?

It is the name the IRS uses when issuing an Employer Identification Number (EIN), the name that will appear on your tax returns, and the name that should be used on other formal documentation.

Does my EIN name have to match my business name?

In e-file, a taxpayer's Employer Identification Number (EIN) and name control in the Return Header must match the data in the IRS e-file database. If the EIN and name control do not match at the parent (consolidated) level, the e-filed return will reject.

What type of business is a trade name?

A trade name is a name under which a person transacts business, other than one's legal name (personal name) or a registered corporate name, general or limited partnership name, limited liability company name or limited liability partnership name.

Where do I register a trade name?

Registering a business name and paying the fee can be done online at bnrs.dti.gov.ph. You may find a step-by-step registration guide at bnrs.dti.gov.ph/resources/registration-guide. You may also register at your nearest DTI Regional or Provincial office.

How do you make a trade name?

Registering a trademark for a company name is pretty straightforward. Many businesses can file an application online in less than 90 minutes, without a lawyer's help. The simplest way to register is on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site, www.uspto.gov.

What is trade name example?

A trade name is the name your business is commonly known as or the name you use when advertising or doing business. A trade name is also called a DBA (doing business as) name. A good example of this is Walmart. Walmart's legal business name is Wal-Mart Inc.

Do I have to register a trading name with Companies House?

It is possible to officially register a company name at Companies House, but then use one or more 'trading names' as required by yourself or your organisation. Some companies trade under different names, with the name registered at Companies House belonging to the original company.

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i'm not sure who asked this one but it's one that a lot of people kind of struggle with and it's it's because it's not easy to wrap your head around it the first time you have to think it through so let me see if i can explain it in a way that makes sense to you so here's a question what's the difference between your brand name your business name and a trademark what's the difference between a brand name a business name and a trademark okay so let's see if i can explain this for you so simply put your brand name can be anything at all you want to be you want to call your product your suite of products can be anything at all neil's fluffy toy emporium could be my brand name for my suite of products and then underneath uh within my fluffy toy emporium of course i can sell all sorts of different fluffy toys okay but my blank brand name neil's fluffy toy emporium that is mine uh no the only thing i need to do to have that as my brand name is just to say that's my brand name it's it's honestly as easy as that now it makes sense before you decide upon your brand name to just check that somebody else hasn't decided that they want the same brand name and they've already got their first okay so it makes sense to do that and in the aoe training i show you exactly how to do that how to just check that the brand name you want is available for you to have somebody hasn't already kind of claimed it first and started calling their products neil's fluffy toy emporium all right but as far as the legal side of things as far as the amazon side of things once i say that's what i'm going to call my suite of products neil's fluffy toy emporium that's it i can get my logo done uh i am done as far as that's concerned okay next comes the next level of legal uh protection for your business because this is what we're really talking about here which is a business name very very different i could call my brand name anything at all and as long as nobody else has got that somewhere around the world big what to do for me i can have it my business name is different okay now i can have exactly the same business name as my brand name i can call my business neil's fluffy toy emporium pty ltd for a company or i can just have neil's fluffy toy emporium for my soul trader no dramas at all so all i need to do to register my business name is go to let's just pull it up here so go to asic.gov register a business name and i can register my business name with asic now that is very very i really recommend you do that it is 37 from memory for the year and 87 for three years to register your business name with asic now that is different to your company name it is different to your sole trader these are all different things but what i would suggest you do is register your brand name neil's fluffy toy emporium as a business name too you can have heaps of different business names you don't just need one you can have heaps of different ones and that gives you another level of protection okay however none of what we've discussed so far affords you any real legal protection if somebody decides that they also want to sell your products and none of it really affords you any protection on amazon which is what we're really here to talk about and for that you'll need a trademark trademarks in australia they've actually made the process really quite easy you get them from ip australia and i'm going to give you a link for that i p australia ip australia and they uh are currently a trademark which will allow you to protect your brand name neil's fluffy toy emporium and also register for brand registry on amazon currently a trademark using the head start process is this there you go that's all the different prices for your thing and it depends how many classes you want to put it into but you'd only really need to put it into one class okay so there's that so that's the three different levels level one is no legal protection whatsoever you just decide you're gonna call your business neil's fluffy toy emporium you get a logo made you're dumb level two you register your name with asic level three you register your name with ip australia that's the three levels of business name so brand name business name and trademark in australia okay oh uh i don't know if this is true or not but nick hemsel says ip australia are increasing their prices as of october 1 as of october 1st okay so we'll have to take nick at his words for that i don't know if that's right or not but uh that's what nick says so if you're gonna get it done get it done now now i will tell you um registering a trademark is i think best left to a legal professional the person that i think you should go and use is actually in the aoe community her name is kate sun and uh kate has registered heaps and heaps of brand names for heaps and heaps of different people so if i come over to discussions if you want to find kate all you need to do is tag her in a post and to do that just start with the at sign and then to start typing kate and then sun and it's double double n like that and kate will do that she she's got very very good rates way cheaper than anywhere else okay she's awesome she's an intellectual property professional and she'll be able to help you out she does really good deals okay so there you go hey neil here just before you go away that was a question that i got asked on my regular monday night q a session which i have with the members of the aussie online entrepreneurs so if you're interested in joining us as an australian entrepreneurs and you can click on the link below to find out a lot more about that and and also as a special thank you for watching this video i've got a great book that i want to give you for free it's a current best seller on amazon and it teaches you everything that you would need to know about starting a business uh here in australia on amazon so you can see that just up there so if you'd like to get a copy of that for free then again just click on the link below and uh you'll get a copy of that you'll get to take into a page where you can get a copy of that for absolutely free hope you enjoyed that little snippet from one of my aussie online entrepreneur q a sessions and make sure that you subscribe to my channel and also like this video and if you've got a question that you would like answering then post it in the comments below and uh i'll do my best to answer it whether on one of these videos for you or directly in the comments directly below all right thanks so much for watching and uh i'll catch you next time on the next of the aussie online entrepreneurs amazon fba australia videos see you soon

Thanks for your comment Major Manera, have a nice day.
- Stasia Ofer, Staff Member

hi everyone i'm attorney aidan durham with 180 law co in colorado and you are watching all up in your business on this episode of all up in your business we're going to talk about dbas and the proper way to use the dba with your business but first don't forget to like subscribe and share and be sure to check the description for links to additional information and resources including my new business checklist which you can download for free all right so first off what is a dba dba stands for doing business as some states use different names or terms for dbas colorado for example calls it a trade name some states call it a fictitious name or an assumed name but overall a dba trade name fictitious name whatever you want to call it it's all pretty much the same registering a dba or trade name is not the same as registering a trade mark first off trademark rights apply to dbas in the same way that they apply to any other business name or brand but registering a dba or trade name doesn't confer any of the additional rights or benefits that you would get from registering a trademark with the united states patent and trademark office or even a trademark registration with your state again every state is different but typically we would register a dba by filing some kind of form with the secretary of state in the state where your business is located or registered in colorado we would file a statement of trade name to register a dba or trade name if we were registering a dba for a sole proprietorship in colorado we would use a form called statement of trade name for an individual this is because the sole proprietorship is technically the individual so it is a trade name of an individual if we were registering a trade name for a general partnership we would use a form called statement of trade name for a non-reporting entity this is because a general partnership isn't required to be registered registered with the state and therefore it's considered a non-reporting entity if we're registering a dba for an llc or a corporation we would use a form called a statement of trade name for a reporting entity because those entities are required to be filed and formed with the secretary of state and therefore they are considered reporting entities again that's just what colorado calls them each state's forms are going to be called something a little different and they're not all necessarily going to use the term trade name or dba and frankly i don't know if every state has separate forms for individuals versus reporting entities like llcs non-reporting entities basically every state's a little different so why would we use the dba or trade name in most cases as a business you would use a dba if you're going to do business as a name that's different from your business's legal name if you're operating a business as a sole proprietor or general partnership then you can register a dba so there is record of the name that you're doing business under for example if you are a business coach and your name is sarah johnson and you do business as sarah johnson then you can register a dba for sarah johnson or you can register a dba for sarah johnson business coaching or sj business coach or whatever name you're gonna do business under the dba doesn't have to include your personal name i was just using that as an example of course whatever you want your business name to be that can be the dba assuming it's you know available and you're legally allowed to use that name of course there's no real legal benefit or legal protection that you get from registering a dba in that instance it's not the same as filing or forming an llc or getting a trademark registration for example but if nothing else you get a registration for that business name with the secretary of state's office so you know if another company is thinking about registering a business for that same or a similar name they'll at least see yours there in the secretary of state's database and you know they'll know that you exist and maybe they'll decide to change their name to something else but the point is it's just getting it registered there but registering the dba or trade name doesn't give you any additional protection or rights other than what you might already have just by virtue of using that name for your business you also don't need to worry about keeping your business separate from you like you would with an llc in an llc it's important that you have a separate business bank account for example that doesn't really matter if you're operating as a sole proprietorship under a dba you certainly can have a business bank account for it and in fact i think it's you know generally a good idea just for good business practice in the sake of knowing what your business's numbers look like and for business operations but you don't have to you're not at risk of piercing the corporate veil because there is no corporate veil to be pierced you're already personally liable for anything with regard to the sole proprietorship so you don't really have anything that you need to avoid if you're operating a business as an llc or a corporation or some other kind of legal entity then you can use the dba or trade name if you're going to do business under a name that's different from the llc or corporation's name that's registered with the secretary of state for example my llc is registered as 180 loco llc and i do business as 180 loco llc so i have no need for a dba but let's say i wanted to open up a second location of my business in my state but just for fun i want to brand it under something else maybe instead of 180 i want to call it 360 law co in that case i can register a trade name under my llc for 360 locko so in other videos where i talk about llc's and avoiding the risks of llcs and piercing the corporate veil i mentioned how it's important to use the llc or similar designation because your customers and the people that your business is dealing with they need to be aware that they are dealing with a limited liability company on contracts and other legal documents it's important to include that entity designation whether it's llc or ltd limited whatever it is important to include that on those documents so it's clear that it's the llc that's entering into that agreement but that doesn't mean you have to always use llc in the name all the time you can if you want to but you don't have to you don't have to include llc in your logo for example or on marketing materials all the time if it just doesn't look right or for whatever reason you don't want to include llc in there that's okay to do and in that case just because you occasionally don't include llc in the name doesn't mean you have to register a dba for that same name without the llc it's really more about if you're doing business under a name that's different than your llc or corporation's name that's registered with the state if you want to create different brands or different lines of business all within your one llc then that's a great use of a dba or trade name you can operate multiple businesses multiple lines of business multiple brands under one entity but lik

Thanks Christena your participation is very much appreciated
- Stasia Ofer

About the author

Stasia Ofer

I've studied drug policy at Southwestern University in Georgetown and I am an expert in histopathology. I usually feel grateful. My previous job was crane operator I held this position for 2 years, I love talking about knife making and drawing. Huge fan of Martin Sheen I practice racquetball and collect pez.