(Contingent effective date – See note) A trade name:

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Terms Used In North Dakota Code 47-25-03

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Partnership: includes a limited liability partnership registered under chapter 45-22. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • written: include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed" except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See North Dakota Code 1-01-37

1.    Must be expressed in letters or characters used in the English language as those letters or characters appear in the American standard code for information interchange (ASCII) table.

2.    May not contain the word “company”, “corporation”, “incorporated”, “limited”, “limited liability company”, “limited partnership”, “limited liability partnership”, “limited liability limited partnership”, or any abbreviation of any of those words unless the owner of the trade name is a corporation, limited liability company, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability limited partnership as indicated by the words used in the name.

3.    May not be the same as or deceptively similar to any name reserved or registered with the secretary of state unless there is filed with the registration a written consent from the holder of the similar name to use the proposed name and filing fee of ten dollars, whether domestic or foreign, including:

a.    Any corporate name; b.    Any limited liability company name; c.    Any other trade name; d.    Any fictitious partnership name; e.    Any limited partnership name; f.    Any limited liability partnership name; g.    Any limited liability limited partnership name; or h.    Any trademark or service mark.

4.    That is a franchise must be accompanied by a written consent from the franchiser.

Trade name – Nature. (Contingent effective date – See note) 1.    A trade name:

a.    Must be expressed in letters or characters used in the English language as those letters or characters appear in the American standard code for information interchange (ASCII) table.

b.    May not contain the word “company”, “corporation”, “incorporated”, “limited”, “limited liability company”, “limited partnership”, “limited liability partnership”, “limited liability limited partnership”, or an abbreviation of any of those words unless the owner of the trade name is a corporation, limited liability company, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability limited partnership as indicated by the words used in the name.

c.    Must be distinguishable in the records of the secretary of state from a name reserved or registered with the secretary of state unless there is filed with the registration a written consent from the holder of the indistinguishable name to use the proposed name and filing fee of ten dollars, whether domestic or foreign, including:

(1) A corporate name; (2) A limited liability company name; (3) Any other trade name; (4) A fictitious partnership name; (5) A limited partnership name; (6) A limited liability partnership name; (7) A limited liability limited partnership name; or

(8) A trademark or service mark.

d.    That is a franchise must be accompanied by a written consent from the franchiser.

2.    The secretary of state shall determine whether a trade name is distinguishable in the secretary of state’s records from another trade name for purposes of this chapter and may adopt rules reasonable or necessary for making these determinations.