A trade name , trading name , or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name . Registering the fictitious name with a relevant government body is often required.
25-557: Uwajimaya, Inc. , doing business as Uwajimaya Asian Grocery & Gift Markets ( 宇和島屋 , Uwajimaya ) , is a family-owned supermarket chain with its corporate headquarters in the International District , Seattle , Washington , and with locations in Greater Seattle and Oregon . Uwajimaya sells mainly Asian food —with an emphasis on Japanese —though it also stocks Western staples. The flagship store
50-420: A DBA must be registered with a local or state government, or both, depending on the jurisdiction. For example, California, Texas and Virginia require a DBA to be registered with each county (or independent city in the case of Virginia) where the owner does business. Maryland and Colorado have DBAs registered with a state agency. Virginia also requires corporations and LLCs to file a copy of their registration with
75-467: A DBA statement, though names including the first and last name of the owner may be accepted. This also reduces the possibility of two local businesses operating under the same name, although some jurisdictions do not provide exclusivity for a name, or may allow more than one party to register the same name. Note, though, that this is not a substitute for filing a trademark application. A DBA filing carries no legal weight in establishing trademark rights. In
100-516: A businessperson writes a trade name on a contract, invoice, or cheque, they must also add the legal name of the business. Numbered companies will very often operate as something other than their legal name, which is unrecognizable to the public. In Chile , a trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Ireland , businesses are legally required to register business names where these differ from
125-447: A mixed retail, residential center that would take up three city blocks including the purchase and closure of S. Lane Street between 5th and 6th Avenues South. The Lane Street closure was controversial within the community, especially among some local small-business owners who were concerned that it would increase traffic, decrease emergency vehicle access, and have a negative economic impact on other businesses. The International District saw
150-632: A pedestrian walkway to customer parking to the south. In 1998, Uwajimaya opened its third store, the first outside Washington located in Oregon near the Beaverton high-tech corridor. This location was formerly a Jafco store, another retail chain founded in Seattle. Upon completion of the Uwajimaya Village project in 2000, the flagship store moved one block south to a building nearly twice
175-566: A protest of over 500 strong, the biggest street protests since the Kingdome was built. Save Lane Street, a group formed to stop the street closure, collected over $ 140,000 and 4,000 signatures and sued both the city of Seattle and Uwajimaya. The group lost their case, eventually appealing to the King County Superior Court and then the state Court of Appeals. In the end S. Lane Street was vacated to allow Uwajimaya to provide
200-458: A registered legal name and a fictitious business name, or trade name, is important because fictitious business names do not always identify the entity that is legally responsible . Legal agreements (such as contracts ) are normally made using the registered legal name of the business. If a corporation fails to consistently adhere to such important legal formalities like using its registered legal name in contracts, it may be subject to piercing of
225-454: Is also sometimes used. A company typically uses a trade name to conduct business using a simpler name rather than using their formal and often lengthier name. Trade names are also used when a preferred name cannot be registered, often because it may already be registered or is too similar to a name that is already registered. Using one or more fictitious business names does not create additional separate legal entities. The distinction between
250-739: Is in Seattle's Chinatown/International District with three other stores in Beaverton, Oregon , Bellevue, Washington and Renton, Washington . From 1968 to 1991 there was another store in the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, Washington . Uwajimaya was founded in 1928 by Fujimatsu Moriguchi of Yawatahama , Japan , in Tacoma, Washington . Fujimatsu sold fishcakes and other goods from his truck to Japanese farmers, loggers and fishermen at work sites. Moriguchi named his company Uwajima-ya after
275-553: The International District . In the 1960s, Uwajimaya began to expand its offering of non-food items and imported food from Japan and other Asian countries and experienced tremendous growth at the Century 21 Exposition in 1962. That same year, Fujimatsu Moriguchi died, and breaking with Japanese tradition, control of the company was passed to his four sons, rather than only his eldest son. The sons subsequently divided ownership with their three sisters and their mother Sadako . In 1970,
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#1732791701822300-466: The United Kingdom , there is no filing requirement for a "business name", defined as "any name under which someone carries on business" that, for a company or limited liability partnership, "is not its registered name", but there are requirements for disclosure of the owner's true name and some restrictions on the use of certain names. A minority of U.S. states, including Washington , still use
325-418: The U.S., trademark rights are acquired by use in commerce, but there can be substantial benefits to filing a trademark application. Sole proprietors are the most common users of DBAs. Sole proprietors are individual business owners who run their businesses themselves. Since most people in these circumstances use a business name other than their own name, it is often necessary for them to get DBAs. Generally,
350-484: The corporate veil . In English , trade names are generally treated as proper nouns . In Argentina , a trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Brazil , a trade name is known as a nome fantasia ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called razão social (social name). In some Canadian jurisdictions , such as Ontario , when
375-534: The county or city to be registered with the State Corporation Commission. DBA statements are often used in conjunction with a franchise . The franchisee will have a legal name under which it may sue and be sued, but will conduct business under the franchiser's brand name (which the public would recognize). A typical real-world example can be found in a well-known pricing mistake case, Donovan v. RRL Corp. , 26 Cal. 4th 261 (2001), where
400-402: The law is to protect the public from fraud, by compelling the business owner to first file or register his fictitious business name with the county clerk, and then making a further public record of it by publishing it in a newspaper. Several other states, such as Illinois , require print notices as well. In Uruguay , a trade name is known as a nombre fantasía , and the legal name of business
425-461: The named defendant, RRL Corporation, was a Lexus car dealership doing business as " Lexus of Westminster ", but remaining a separate legal entity from Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. . In California , filing a DBA statement also requires that a notice of the fictitious name be published in local newspapers for some set period of time to inform the public of the owner's intent to operate under an assumed name . The intention of
450-550: The size of the previous store at 60,000 square feet (5,600 m). Uwajimaya Village includes a food court , bank , restaurant , optician , beauty salon , cellular wireless store, and cosmetic shop. The Kinokuniya Bookstore also relocated to a new location at the corner of 5th Avenue S. and S. Weller Street. Above the first floor of retail shops and underground parking garage is the 176-unit Uwajimaya Village Apartments. Sadako (Tsutakawa) Moriguchi , wife of Fujimatsu and sister of George Tsutakawa , died in 2002. She had worked in
475-525: The start of 2023. Trade name In a number of countries, the phrase " trading as " (abbreviated to t/a ) is used to designate a trade name. In the United States , the phrase " doing business as " (abbreviated to DBA , dba , d.b.a. , or d/b/a ) is used, among others, such as assumed business name or fictitious business name . In Canada , " operating as " (abbreviated to o/a ) and " trading as " are used, although " doing business as "
500-538: The store from its inception until she reached the age of 85. Uwajimaya opened another location in Renton, Washington on July 1, 2009. In August 2016, Uwajimaya announced its intention to launch a line of smaller, boutique stores known as "Kai Market by Uwajimaya". Kai Market opened in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood in 2017, but closed in 2020 due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic . It remains closed as of
525-683: The store moved two blocks south to 6th Avenue S. and S. King Street, thus becoming one of the biggest in the Pacific Northwest , and expanded in 1978 adding more than half again its original size. 1978 also saw the opening of the Bellevue Uwajimaya. In 1991, Tokyo -based Kinokuniya Bookstore opened its first Seattle location on the second floor of the Seattle store selling primarily Japanese language books, movies, DVD, videos, music, and periodicals. In 1998, Uwajimaya, with Lorig Associates, started developing Uwajimaya Village,
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#1732791701822550-459: The surname(s) of the sole trader or partners, or the legal name of a company. The Companies Registration Office publishes a searchable register of such business names. In Japan , the word yagō ( 屋号 ) is used. In Colonial Nigeria , certain tribes had members that used a variety of trading names to conduct business with the Europeans. Two examples were King Perekule VII of Bonny , who
575-469: The term trade name to refer to "doing business as" (DBA) names. In most U.S. states now, however, DBAs are officially referred to using other terms. Almost half of the states, including New York and Oregon , use the terms assumed business name or assumed name ; nearly as many, including Pennsylvania , use the term fictitious name . For consumer protection purposes, many U.S. jurisdictions require businesses operating with fictitious names to file
600-663: The town of Uwajima ( Ehime Prefecture ), where he first entered the business ( ya (屋) is the Japanese word for "store"). As part of the internment of Japanese Americans following the entry of the United States into World War II , The US Government sent Moriguchi and his family to the Tule Lake Internment Camp in 1942. Upon their release, they moved to Seattle and set up shop at 422 S. Main Street in
625-553: Was known as Captain Pepple in trade matters, and King Jubo Jubogha of Opobo , who bore the pseudonym Captain Jaja . Both Pepple and Jaja would bequeath their trade names to their royal descendants as official surnames upon their deaths. In Singapore , there is no filing requirement for a "trading as" name, but there are requirements for disclosure of the underlying business or company's registered name and unique entity number. In
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