Ohio Trade Name and DBA Registration Service

What is an Ohio DBA?

DBA stands for "doing business as." It is the name a business uses with customers when that name is not its exact legal name. Smith Home Repair LLC that puts "Northcoast Gutters" on its trucks is using a DBA. So is Jane Smith, a sole proprietor, who sells at farmers markets as "Medina Honey Co."

Ohio law does not use the term DBA. Chapter 1329 of the Ohio Revised Code uses two terms instead: trade name and fictitious name. Both are filed with the Ohio Secretary of State, both cost $39 under ORC 111.16(S)(2), and both last five years. The difference is what you are claiming when you file, which is covered below.

An Ohio trade name registration does not create a new business. The LLC, corporation, or person behind it stays the same, and so does its liability. The filing simply puts on the public record that this person or entity is doing business under that name.

That public record is the point. A customer, a supplier, or a court looking at "Northcoast Gutters" can search the Secretary of State's records and find out who actually stands behind it. For you, it is the paperwork that lets the bank, the payment processor, and, if it comes to that, an Ohio court treat the brand name as yours.

This page is where you order the filing from us. To file it yourself, our free Ohio DBA registration guide walks through Form 534A step by step. Still deciding between a DBA and a company? Read our Ohio DBA vs. LLC comparison.

Trade name vs. fictitious name in Ohio

ORC 1329.01(A) defines both terms. A trade name is a name used in business or trade to designate the business of the user, where the user asserts a right to its exclusive use. A fictitious name is a name used in business or trade that is fictitious and that the user has not registered as a trade name.

In practice, the choice comes down to whether you want to claim the name and whether the name is available to claim. Under ORC 1329.01(D), you report a fictitious name if you have not registered the name as a trade name and do not wish to, or cannot because the name is not available.

Not everything needs a filing. ORC 1329.01(A) excludes from the definition of fictitious name the legal names of corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, and LLPs formed or registered with the state. Your filed legal name is already on the record.

Who needs to register an Ohio trade name or fictitious name?

Anyone doing business under a name that is not their legal name. ORC 1329.01 applies to every "person," which the statute defines broadly: individuals, general and limited partnerships, corporations, LLCs, associations, and similar organizations, whether formed under Ohio law or another state's.

• A sole proprietor operating under any name other than their own.
• A general partnership using a business name.
• An LLC or corporation using a brand name that differs from its filed name.
• An out-of-state company registered in Ohio that sells here under a brand name.

If you are using a fictitious name and have not registered it as a trade name, ORC 1329.01(E) says the report is due within 30 days after the date you first use the name. If you are already past that date, file now rather than later. Whether a particular variation of your legal name needs its own filing can be a judgment call; when in doubt, ask your attorney.

What happens if you use an unregistered name in Ohio

The main consequence is in court. ORC 1329.10(B) says a person doing business under a trade name or fictitious name cannot commence or maintain an action in that name until it has complied with ORC 1329.01. Once it complies, it can bring claims on contracts and transactions entered into before compliance.

The rule runs one way. Under ORC 1329.10(C), anyone can sue the user of a trade name or fictitious name whether or not the name was ever registered or reported. So skipping the filing does not protect you from lawsuits. It only gets in the way when you are the one who needs to sue, for example to collect from a customer who never paid an invoice issued under your brand name.

There are practical reasons too. Banks often ask for proof of a registered name before they will open an account in it or accept checks made out to it, and payment processors and marketplaces may ask for the same thing. A filed registration in your portal answers that request in one attachment.

How long does an Ohio trade name last, and how do you renew it?

ORC 1329.04 makes a trade name registration or fictitious name report effective for five years from the date of registration or report. It can be renewed at the end of each five-year period for another five years.

• The renewal application has to be filed within the six months before the term expires.
• The Secretary of State sends a reminder by mail or email during that six-month window, to the contact on file.
• The renewal fee is $25 under ORC 111.16(S)(3).
• A general partnership has to renew whenever a partner named on its filing stops being a partner.

Keep the contact address on your filing current so the reminder reaches you. Put the expiration date on your own calendar as well, about six months out, so a missed email does not become a missed renewal. If a registration lapses, you are back to using an unregistered name, with the limits described above. Our trade name service files the original registration; if you want us to handle a renewal when the time comes, place a new order and we will prepare it.

What Ohio trade name registration costs

You can file yourself on the Secretary of State's site; the trade name registration form is Form 534A, Name Registration. Our fee covers the availability check, choosing the right filing, preparing it, filing it online, and putting the filed copy in your portal. We list the state fee separately so you can see exactly what goes to Ohio.

Over a five-year term, the state cost of an Ohio DBA is $39 up front and $25 for each renewal after that. There is no annual fee and no annual report for a trade name. The recurring step is the renewal every five years, plus an early renewal if you are a general partnership and a partner named on the filing leaves.

Choosing a name that will work for an Ohio trade name filing

Pick the name before you print anything. The order is simple: choose the name, check it, file it, then put it on the truck, the website, and the invoices. Doing it the other way around is how owners end up paying for signage twice.

Check what is already on the record

If you want the exclusive claim that comes with a trade name registration, the name has to be available. We check it against the names on Ohio Business Central before we file. If it is not available, you still have two options: report it as a fictitious name, which records your use without claiming exclusivity, or pick a different name that clears.

Think about the trade name and the entity name together

A registered trade name with an exclusive right is one of the names Ohio checks when someone tries to form an LLC under ORC 1706.07(B). That cuts both ways. If you register a trade name now and later want to form an LLC with the same name, you are the holder whose consent ORC 1706.07(C) would require, so the conflict is yours to resolve. If you are planning to form an entity soon anyway, it can be simpler to form the entity under the name you want and skip the trade name.

Out-of-state companies

A foreign LLC whose own name does not meet Ohio's naming rules has to adopt a compliant name for use in Ohio before it can register (ORC 1706.513). That is a separate step from a DBA, handled with the foreign registration. If your company is registered here and also sells under a brand name, the brand name is a trade name or fictitious name filing like any other.

How our Ohio DBA filing service works

1. Place the order with the name you want to use, the legal name and Ohio entity number of the business (or the owner's name for a sole proprietor), a short description of the business, and the date you began using the name.
2. We check the name on Ohio Business Central and tell you whether a trade name registration or a fictitious name report fits.
3. We review the order, confirm the state fee, and email you a secure card payment link before we file: $50 to us plus the $39 state fee.
4. We file the registration with the Ohio Secretary of State online.
5. The filed registration and the state receipt appear in your portal.

The same portal holds your statutory agent documents if we are your agent, but a trade name order does not require agent service. A sole proprietor with no registered entity can order a trade name filing by itself.

What an Ohio fictitious name or trade name does not do

A DBA is a name on the record, not a structure. It is worth being clear about its limits before you rely on it.

• It does not create a separate legal entity or limit anyone's personal liability. A sole proprietor with a trade name is still a sole proprietor. If you want an entity, that is a formation filing.
• It does not change your legal name. The LLC, corporation, or person behind the brand is still the party to its contracts, its bank accounts, and its tax filings.
• It is not a federal trademark. Whether a trade name registration gives you rights against another user of the name is a question for your attorney.
• It does not register you for Ohio taxes or local licenses. Those are separate.

If you are an LLC or corporation with more than one brand, each name you use publicly is its own filing under the same entity, with its own $39 fee and its own five-year term. Track the renewal dates separately, because names registered in different years expire in different years.