KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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Doing business under your licensed name
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October 30, 2021
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Next Webinar:
Title: Borrowing and finance option: DealerAlly Program
When: November 9, 2021 12 pm ET
Presented by: Tim Meekin, President of DealerAlly, LLC
Hosted by: Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Who should attend: alarm owners, CEOs, CFOs, Sales Managers
Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8348669174055938571
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Doing business under your licensed name
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Ken
We are a corporation and use a DBA, doing business as, as our trade name. Contracts you provided to use has our dba on the top of the contract and our corporate name by our signature line. Is that what you recommend?
Texas Occupations Code Title 10 states you must use your name as it is on record with the state. Our name on record with the state is on our license, which is required to be on display in a conspicuous location at our address on record with the state. It’s the name we are required to use on any materials including our subscriber agreement.
Anon
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Response
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There are a few competing issues that complicate the answer; no wonder there is some confusion. Most states, by the way, have similar laws to Texas, which I haven’t checked. Here is why there can be confusion:
When you incorporated you had a name. If not a corporation, then LLC. Most of you are, and should be, either a corporation or LLC. If you filed in one state and then sought authority to do business in another state you most likely had to use the same name. So you’ve got a name for your entity.
Next, you may decide to conduct business in an assumed name, a “doing business as” name. Could be similar to the actual name, maybe dropping the corporate designation, Inc, Corp, etc. or the doing business name can be entirely different. Most states will have a law requiring the corporate entity to file a Certificate of Doing Business under Assumed Name, so that the state and public can keep track of both the actual and trade name.
But alarm licensing laws also call for a name, and not every alarm licensing agency is going to insist on that license being in the actual corporate name or trade name or both names, such as ABC Alarm Corp dba XYZ Alarms. But most if not all alarm license laws will require the alarm company to display on all written material the business name on the license.
So when you point out that the state requires that you use the name on record with the state the logical question is, on record with which division of the state, the Secretary of State or the State Licensing Board; they may be different names.
And, there’s more than complying with the licensing law when it comes to what name you hold out to the public. You formed a corporate or LLC entity for a reason and to enjoy the benefits of those reasons, such as insulate you from personal contractual liability, you need to be sure that the public understands that you are a corporation. Otherwise you run the risk of piercing the corporation veil; you risk exposure.
If you have filed all the proper trade name certificates you are safe to use the trade name, though I prefer using the trade name on top of the contract and the actual corporate name by the signature line. That is for liability consideration.
But the license law is more likely to be the issue. You should be using the license name, the name that appears on your license. In some states you will be found in violation of the license law if you don’t comply with this rather simple requirement.
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com