Our next stop on the trip through the many intangible assets a company owns is DBA. DBA stands for “doing business as.” This is a filing a company makes to close the gap between the name the company listed with the Secretary of State and the name the company calls itself in the market. Beware, the Secretary of State does not inherently protect your brand name (read more about this here). 

Most companies are created by filing paperwork with the Secretary of State. 

Many of these companies have very unusual sounding names like “Burger Restaurant No. 2, LLC.” This company may then open a restaurant called “Old South Burgers.” The DBA filing is what allows the public to know who is behind “Old South Burgers.” For example, if someone gets injured at Old South Burgers, they could look in the county courthouse records to know who to sue.

DBA filings are primarily made with the county courthouse in the county where the business operates. These are not very easy items to search, but they are searchable when necessary.