Fictitious names, entity names and trademarks are three different things

Three separate registrations get confused, and they protect different things — or nothing. The entity name is what the company is called on the state register. It has to be distinguishable from other registered entities, and that is the whole test. It is not a rights grant. A fictitious name — a DBA — is registered when the business operates under a name other than its legal one. Florida requires it, with publication, and it is essentially a disclosure so the public can find out who is behind the name. Multiple businesses can register very similar fictitious names, because the registry does not examine for conflict. A trademark is the one that confers rights: the ability to stop someone else using a confusingly similar mark for related goods or services. Common-law rights arise from actual use in a geographic area; a state registration covers Florida; a federal registration covers the whole country and is the one worth pursuing for anything that will scale or sell online. Which is why "I registered the name with the state" and "the name is mine" are unrelated statements, and why the sequence should be: search before committing. A federal trademark search, a domain check and a social handle check, all before the logo, the signage, the packaging and the van livery. A business that has to rename in year two because someone with prior rights objected loses the brand equity it spent two years building, and the cost is not the filing fee. This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and every deal is different — check your own case with a licensed professional. Alberto Zaltzberg — Adonait · adonait.com