Learn the difference between legal names, trade names and trademarks.

Different types of protections are available for a company’s name, which is a valuable asset for most businesses.

The most basic protections come from having a legal name, whereas a trademark can carry with it national (and sometimes international) protections. Below is a simple breakdown of different types of business names and the protections each provides.

Legal Names

A company’s legal name is the name filed with the applicable state when the company is formed. This name is also on file with any other state where the company is registered to do business. Once you register a name with a state, no other business may register to use that name in the same state, although variations of the same name are allowed. Nonetheless, another business could register with the same name in a different state. The legal name does not provide much protection except that no other company may have the same name in the states where a company registers to do business.

Trade Names

A trade name is any name a company uses in conducting business with customers that is not its full legal name. A trade name may be the same as or different from the legal name. A trade name is also known as a fictitious name and often referred to as a “Doing Business As” (DBA).

For example, you may register your legal name as Jewelry Makers LLC, but you may operate that business as Jazzy Jewels or something unrelated to the legal name, such as Julie’s Sparkles. Here, your trade name would be Jazzy Jewels or Julie’s Sparkles.

The federal government does not have a national registry for fictitious names. Accordingly, you would have to register your trade name at the state level, and the trade name would only have protection in that state.

If you want to use a trade name in Missouri, you must register it with the Missouri Secretary of State. Kansas does not register trade names. Because of these limitations, a trade name does not afford much name protection or provide unlimited rights to the use of the name in a market.

Trademarks

A trademark is used to protect a company’s brand name against use by other parties. Because a name brand is often very valuable, many business owners take the steps to federally or internationally protect their brand by obtaining a registered trademark. A trademark can protect names, words, symbols, sounds or colors that distinguish goods as unique in the market. A service mark is the equivalent of a trademark, but is used for distinguishing services instead of goods. Registering a trademark provides the owner of the mark with exclusive use of the mark, establishes legally that the mark is not already being used by someone else in the same market and provides statutory protection from any infringement by another party.

While companies may receive trademark protection at the state level in most states, federal law provides the most extensive source of trademark protection within the United States. Trademarks must meet specifications that distinguish the trademark as special or different from others in the same market. Not all marks are registerable; meaning, not all marks will meet the standards set by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The USPTO only registers your trademark, but it does not provide enforcement against infringement of the mark. You must take an active role in ensuring that others do not infringe on your trademark.

What qualifies as infringement by another user is highly circumstantial. Two identical marks may exist simultaneously, but only if the goods and services are not related or, in other words, do not have a likelihood of confusion between the two trademarks. For example, Delta Storage and Delta Air Lines may both have a Delta trademark. Because the Delta mark is used in different industries and is not easily confused in this case, the USPTO approved those similar trademarks.

Trademarks may have international protections through the International Trademark Association, the Madrid Protocol and the Madrid Agreement. What countries are involved in each, the extent of a company’s trademark rights and the enforceability of those rights vary widely depending on the circumstances surrounding the company and the trademark.