Your personal, legal name is
your first and last name.
A corporation's legal name is the one appearing on
the face of the registered, stamped state corporate, LLC or Ltd Partnership
certificate.
Thus, if your name is John Doe and you are doing business as
as a sole proprietor with the Business Fictitious Trade Name "John's Plumbing," you are
required to register a Business Fictitious Trade Name , Business Fictitious Trade Name statement.
On the Business Fictitious Trade Name certificate / statement, you will be
the registrant, John Doe, doing business as the Business Fictitious Trade Name name "John's
Plumbing".
If you have registered a corporation, or LLC with that name
(i.e., "John's Plumbing") you don't need to file a Business Fictitious Trade Name with the same
name (i.e., with "John's Plumbing" Business Fictitious Trade Name ).
However, if you have filed "John's Plumbing"
corporation, or LLC and you decide you also want to do business as a
corporation but with a different than the corporation's name.
For instance, you want to do business with the Business Fictitious Trade Name "Plumber 4
You," you need to register a Business Fictitious Trade Name under "John's Plumbing" corporation (in
such case, "John's Plumbing" corporation will be the registrant of the Business Fictitious Trade Name
Business Fictitious Trade Name "Plumber 4 You".
Why is it called a ""
Business Fictitious Trade Name , assumed name or a trade name?
It is called a "" name, mainly because it is not the
"legal name" of the owner.
An individual has a legal name because he or she has a birth
certificate and or a social security number.
A corporation has a legal
name because it has a corporate certificate filed with the state as well as a
federal Tax Id Number Number.
Thus, a person with a legal name, doing business as a name other
than its legal name, has to file a Business Fictitious Trade Name of the name he is
doing business as...
A Business Fictitious Trade Name , an assumed name or a trade name,
is simply a company's Business Fictitious Trade Name , when the Business Fictitious Trade Name is not the same as
the owner's name of the business.
For example, the Business Fictitious Trade Name of a sole proprietorship is "Joan's
Burger Queen". If the Business Fictitious Trade Name was
the name of the owner of the business, "Joan Doe," the first and last name
of the owner, it would not be a "" Business Fictitious Trade Name .
Likewise if
the owner of the business is a corporation, as for example, IBM corporation,
doing business as the Business Fictitious Trade Name "Computers to Go," "Computers to Go" would
be a Business Fictitious Trade Name for IBM corporation because the name is not the
corporation / owner's name (namely, the name is not " IBM corporation").
