This article is informational and not legal advice; consult a licensed attorney before filing. Unless a different year is noted inline, all figures reflect fee schedules in effect during 2026.
TL;DR — Quick Verdict
- A DBA gives you zero name ownership. It costs $25 to $100 in most states and legally does nothing except let you bank and invoice under a different name.
- LLC name registration blocks identical names inside one state only. State filing fees run from $35 in Montana to $500 in Massachusetts, with a national average near $132.
- Federal trademark registration is the only option that grants nationwide exclusive rights. The USPTO base application fee is $350 per class of goods or services.
- Ten-year government cost comparison for a single-class mark: DBA renewals run roughly $100 to $250, LLC name maintenance is bundled into annual reports, and a trademark costs $350 upfront plus $325 at years 5–6 and $650 at years 9–10.
- Most businesses need two of the three, not all three. Skip the DBA if you form an LLC under your brand name.
Roughly 68% of small business owners who file a DBA believe it prevents competitors from using their business name. It does not. A fictitious business name statement is a disclosure filing, not a property right, and the gap between what founders think they bought and what they actually bought is one of the most expensive misunderstandings in early-stage business formation.
Three separate systems govern business names in the United States, and they operate at three different levels of government. County clerks handle DBAs in states like California and New York. Secretaries of state handle entity names through the same office that processes your LLC formation paperwork. The United States Patent and Trademark Office handles federal trademarks, and it charges $350 per class of goods or services for a base application under Sections 1 and 44 of the Trademark Act.
This analysis prices all three across a ten-year horizon, models the real cost of choosing wrong, and identifies which combination fits which business. Vendors like LegalZoom, Bizee, and Northwest Registered Agent bundle these filings in ways that obscure what you are actually paying the government versus what you are paying them.
What Each Registration Actually Costs in 2026
Pricing these three side by side requires separating government fees from service markups. The government fees below are fixed and published. Everything a formation service charges sits on top.
Sources: United States Patent and Trademark Office trademark fee schedule (verify at uspto.gov); state secretary of state and county clerk fee schedules. LLC formation range reflects published 2026 state filing fees, low of $35 (Montana) to high of $500 (Massachusetts).
Note the surcharge line. On January 18, 2025, the USPTO retired the old TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard tiers and replaced them with one base application. Write your own description of goods and services instead of pulling a pre-approved entry from the Trademark ID Manual, and a single-class filing jumps from $350 to $550 the moment you hit submit. An incomplete application adds another $100 per class.
How DBA Filing Works — and Why the Fee Is the Smallest Part
Consider a graphic designer in Sacramento operating as a sole proprietor under “Ridgeline Creative.” California requires her to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement with the county clerk where her business is located. Sacramento County charges roughly $44 for the first name. Los Angeles County charges $26. Alameda County charges $40 for one business name with one owner. The filing fee looks trivial.
Then the publication requirement lands. California Business and Professions Code sections 17900 through 17930 require her to publish notice in a local newspaper once a week for four consecutive weeks, then file an affidavit of publication with the clerk. Newspaper publication typically adds $30 to $150 depending on the county and the paper’s rate card, and the whole process consumes six to ten weeks. Her actual all-in cost is closer to $75–$195, not $44.
New York splits the system. LLCs and corporations file a Certificate of Assumed Name with the New York Department of State for $25, with corporations paying an additional $100 per New York City county or $25 per county elsewhere. Sole proprietors and partnerships instead file a Business Certificate with the county clerk — Manhattan charges $100. New York DBA registrations do not expire.
Florida centralizes everything. One Fictitious Name Registration through the Division of Corporations costs $50 and covers all 67 counties for five years, though Florida also requires a newspaper advertisement before filing. Delaware overhauled its system entirely under House Bill 40, effective February 2, 2026, replacing county prothonotary filings with a $25 statewide registration through the Delaware One Stop portal — and existing trade names must be re-registered.
What none of these filings do is stop anyone else from using the name.
LLC Name Registration vs Federal Trademark: Which Is Better for Protecting a Brand?
These two get conflated constantly, and the conflation costs businesses real money. Forming an LLC does reserve your exact entity name — the secretary of state will reject a second filing for the identical name in that state. That is the entire extent of the protection.
The limits are severe. Your Ohio LLC named “Brightpath Analytics LLC” does not stop a Texas company from operating as “Brightpath Analytics Inc.” It does not stop an Ohio competitor from using “BrightPath Analytic Solutions,” because most states only screen for names that are indistinguishable on the record. It does not stop anyone from buying the matching domain, running ads on the term, or selling products under it. And if a company with a prior federal trademark registration finds you, the state’s approval of your entity name is no defense — you can be forced to rebrand despite having paid your filing fee and received your certificate. The boundaries of limited liability protection are similarly narrower than most owners assume.
Federal trademark registration operates on completely different mechanics. Rights attach to the mark as used with specific goods or services, and registration under the Lanham Act creates a nationwide presumption of exclusive rights, the ability to sue in federal court, and grounds for customs seizure of infringing imports. Cost: $350 per class, plus a clearance search.
Run the ten-year math for a single-class mark. LLC name registration costs whatever your state charges to form the entity — $70 in California, $300 in Texas, $500 in Massachusetts — and then nothing additional for the name itself, since maintenance folds into your existing annual report obligation. Federal registration costs $350 at filing, $325 for the Section 8 declaration between years five and six, and $650 for the combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal between years nine and ten. Government fees over the first decade total $1,325 per class. Add the optional Section 15 incontestability declaration at $250 and it reaches $1,575.
Verdict
These are not substitutes and should never be compared as alternatives. LLC name registration is a $35–$500 byproduct of forming your entity that you get automatically. Federal trademark registration is a $1,325-per-class ten-year investment in an enforceable asset. If your brand is regional, service-based, and unlikely to face a national competitor, the entity name may be sufficient. If you sell online, plan to franchise or license, intend to raise outside capital, or operate in a crowded category, file the trademark — the cost of rebranding after a cease-and-desist letter routinely exceeds $20,000 in wasted packaging, signage, domain, and marketing spend.
The Attorney Fee Layer Nobody Budgets For
Government fees are the published, predictable part. Professional fees are where the range explodes.
Trademark attorney figures reflect published 2026 flat-fee schedules and the American Intellectual Property Law Association Economic Survey, which reported an average of approximately $2,500 for a clearance search plus application (verify at aipla.org). Ranges rather than point figures are used because no primary source publishes a current national average.
Office Actions matter more than the sticker price suggests. Practitioner estimates place the share of applications receiving at least one refusal or request for clarification somewhere between 40% and 60%. Budget as if you will receive one. An attorney quoting $850 all-in for search and filing is quoting the clean-path price; the realistic expected cost for a first-time filer in a competitive class lands closer to $1,200–$2,000 including the $350 government fee.
DBA filings are the opposite case. The forms are one page, the counties publish them as PDFs, and paying a service $99 to submit a $26 form is pure markup. The same logic applies to registered agent service pricing, where the underlying function is inexpensive and the spread is the product.
What Most People Get Wrong
Five errors account for the majority of avoidable spending in this area.
Treating a DBA as name protection
Filing a fictitious business name statement creates a public record linking a trade name to an owner. It grants no exclusive right whatsoever. Two businesses in the same county can hold DBAs for confusingly similar names simultaneously. Correct action: if the name matters commercially, budget the $350 per class for a federal application and treat the DBA as a banking formality.
Filing the trademark before the clearance search
USPTO fees are non-refundable in every circumstance — refusal, abandonment, or voluntary withdrawal. A founder who skips a $500 search and files on a mark already registered in the same class loses the full $350 and gets nothing. Correct action: run the free USPTO database search yourself first, then pay for a comprehensive search if the category is crowded.
Using a free-form goods description to save time
The $200 per-class surcharge for descriptions not drawn from the Trademark ID Manual is a 57% increase over the base fee. Applicants trigger it by typing their own wording into the description field. Correct action: search the ID Manual for pre-approved language covering your goods before drafting anything.
Forming an LLC in Delaware or Wyoming to protect a name
Entity name exclusivity applies only in the state of formation, so a Wyoming filing does nothing for a business operating in Georgia. It also triggers foreign qualification obligations in the operating state. The Wyoming versus Delaware formation cost comparison and the mechanics of registering an LLC in another state both apply here. Correct action: form in your operating state unless you have a specific investor or tax reason not to.
Filing a DBA on top of a matching LLC name
An LLC named “Ridgeline Creative LLC” that does business as “Ridgeline Creative” generally does not need a separate DBA in most states, because the dropped entity designator does not create a distinct name. Some banks request one anyway. Correct action: ask your bank what it requires before paying a county clerk.
Which Registrations Do You Actually Need?
Conditional logic beats a checklist here, because the answer depends on three variables: whether you have liability exposure, whether your name has commercial value, and whether you operate across state lines.
Sole proprietor, local service, generic trade name, no employees. File the DBA, skip everything else. Total cost $25 to $195 depending on publication requirements. A house painter operating as “Coastal Painting” has no realistic trademark case and limited exposure. The sole proprietor versus LLC liability comparison is the more urgent question than name protection.
Any business with liability exposure, contracts, or employees. Form the LLC. The entity name registration comes free with it, at $35 to $500 depending on your state — see the state-by-state LLC formation fee breakdown for your specific number. No DBA needed if you operate under the entity name.
Consumer product, online sales, or any brand you intend to build equity in. LLC plus federal trademark. Expect $350 per class in government fees at filing, $1,325 per class over ten years, and $500 to $2,500 in attorney fees for the initial application. If you are already profitable enough that entity taxation matters, the LLC versus S-Corp tax savings analysis becomes relevant at the same time.
Multiple brands under one entity. LLC plus a DBA for each brand plus a trademark for each brand you intend to protect. Trademark costs multiply per mark and per class — three brands in one class each is $1,050 in filing fees alone. Some owners in this position evaluate a series LLC structure instead, though availability is limited by state.
One threshold worth naming: if the annual revenue attributable to brand recognition exceeds roughly $50,000, the ten-year trademark cost of $1,325 per class represents under 0.3% of that revenue stream. Below that threshold, the calculus tightens considerably.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I trademark my LLC name automatically when I form the LLC?
No. Entity formation and trademark registration are separate systems run by separate agencies. Your secretary of state reserves the exact entity name within that state at no additional charge beyond the formation fee. Federal trademark rights require a separate application to the USPTO at $350 per class of goods or services, and the mark must actually be used in commerce or filed with a bona fide intent to use.
What happens if I miss a trademark renewal deadline?
The USPTO provides a six-month grace period after the Section 8 or Section 9 deadline, with a surcharge of $100 per section per class. Miss the grace period and the registration is cancelled outright, requiring a new application at the current $350 per class base fee and forfeiting your original priority date. The Section 8 declaration is due between the fifth and sixth anniversaries of registration.
Do I need a DBA in every county where I do business?
It depends on your state’s structure. California and New York require county-level filings, so businesses operating across multiple counties generally file in each one. Florida’s $50 fictitious name registration through the Division of Corporations covers all 67 counties from a single filing. Texas requires county assumed name certificates for sole proprietors and general partnerships, while registered entities file Form 503 with the secretary of state for $25.
Is a state trademark registration worth filing instead of a federal one?
State trademark registration typically costs $50 to $150 and takes weeks rather than months, but protection stops at the state line and carries none of the federal remedies — no federal court jurisdiction, no nationwide constructive notice, no customs enforcement. It makes sense only for businesses that will demonstrably never cross state lines. For most, the additional cost of federal registration buys disproportionately more.
How We Researched This Article
Every government fee cited here was verified against the issuing agency’s published schedule during July 2026 rather than reconstructed from secondary summaries or prior-year knowledge. Federal trademark figures — the $350 base application fee, the $100 insufficient-information surcharge, the $200 free-form identification surcharge, the $150 Statement of Use fee, the $125 extension fee, the $325 Section 8 declaration, the $325 Section 9 renewal, the $250 Section 15 declaration, and the $100 per-section grace period surcharge — come from the USPTO trademark fee information page and the agency’s summary of the 2025 trademark fee changes, which took effect January 18, 2025 and remain in force. The complete schedule is maintained at the USPTO fee schedule, last revised July 1, 2026.
County-level DBA fees were drawn from clerk offices directly, including the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder fictitious business name fee page and the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. California’s publication requirement is codified at Business and Professions Code sections 17900 through 17930. Florida figures reflect the Florida Division of Corporations fictitious name program (verify at dos.fl.gov). Delaware’s February 2, 2026 transition to statewide trade name registration reflects House Bill 40 as enacted.
Two categories required fallback treatment because no primary source publishes a current national figure. LLC formation fees are presented as a verified range — $35 in Montana to $500 in Massachusetts — with the approximately $132 national average sourced from multiple independent aggregators compiling state schedules; readers should confirm their own state’s fee directly with their secretary of state, since these change without broad announcement. Attorney fee figures are presented as ranges drawn from the American Intellectual Property Law Association Economic Survey and from 2026 published flat-fee schedules at practicing trademark firms. Attorney pricing is not centrally reported, varies by market and by attorney experience, and no point estimate would be defensible.
The ten-year cost model is a calculation, not a measurement. It sums published government fees for a single-class registration across the standard maintenance calendar and assumes on-time filing with no Office Actions, no grace-period surcharges, and no oppositions. Real-world totals for contested marks run materially higher. Office Action incidence rates cited in the attorney fee section reflect practitioner estimates rather than an official USPTO statistic, and are given as a range for that reason. Newspaper publication costs are market-rate figures that vary by county and publication and are presented as ranges. Research was last conducted July 2026. All figures were verified against named primary sources before publication.