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Q.Whats the difference between a DBA and a trademark?
A.A DBA, or fictitious business name, enables a business to open a bank account in the name of the business. A DBA, or fictitious business name, is not the same as incorporating your business or filing a trademark.
Bear in mind, in many cases, a DBA or fictitious business name filing will not prevent others from also filing the same or similar business name. In fact you want to be careful not to infringe the use of another business' trademark when filing for a DBA or fictitious business name. DBAs and fictitious business names are generally NOT checked against existing government records to see if the name selected, or a similar name, is already in use or trademarked. In addition, several county laws require you to research your proposed name to see if it will conflict with an existing registered name, or registered trademark.
It is therefore wise to have an attorney check to see if your selected name is being used as a registered corporation, or limited liability company name in your state, and as a trademark at both the federal and state level.
From this you have probably surmised that a DBA and fictitious business name are not the same as incorporating your business. It is also not the equivalent to filing a trademark. A DBA registration is merely an official county-level recording of the business's name and the real name of the person(s) operating a business.
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