Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Statement of Abandonment of a Ficititious Business Name Statement

Your question as submitted to me by the webmaster states that it involves California law as well as Arizona. Your terminology suggests that you are dealing with California law. I will give a general answer that would apply in Arizona for what good it can do you.

Some facts are lacking here as to what exactly happened, which is a problem we have in this forum. Too little facts are usually known.

In Arizona, trade names are registered with the Secretary of State. No other entity can register that name or use it in a filing for a corporation or LLC as long as it is registered. The registration expires with the passage of time and must be renewed by the registrant.

The government bodies who register trade names do not certify that the name is not being used by another business, only that it is not registered to someone else. Registration gives you public notice that you are using that name. Notice of use of name can also be given by actual notice of the use of that name by someone in the community, such as in advertising, phone listings, signs, internet web site usage, and reputation and operation of a business. The federal government also registers trademarks and names. If you check the information of these agencies they tell you what they do and what they do not do. Tort law is established to regulate the unfair use of names in the common law by the courts.

From your question it is difficult to determine if you were the one who registered the name, and let the registration lapse, or are the new registrant of the name. Prior to the expiration of the registration someone can file a document of abandonment, freeing up the name for others. Otherwise, the registration expires after the duration of the registration by itself.

If you need more information perhaps you could re-submit your question with more detail. I would not state that it is up to the clerk of any governmental agency to inform anyone of any lapse or lack of filing an abandonment of name, only to register names if they are available and unregistered to another.

Best regards,

James D. Jenkins