- 1). Determine the appropriate state agency that is responsible for regulating LLCs in your jurisdiction. Generally, this will be the Secretary of State but in some states LLC regulation is performed by a specialized agency.
- 2). Contact the office and inform the agency that you would like to perform an LLC name search. Most states have a business name database for all LLCs registered within the state. Most of these databases are available online.
- 3). Access the database and perform your LLC name search. Most databases employ a simple name input procedure, where you type in a name and the database offers a list of names that match or nearly match your inputted query.
- 4). Visit the United States Patents and Trademark Office's (USPTO) website. Perform an LLC name search via the Trademark Electronic Search System. If your LLC name is a registered trademark, you will not be able to use it as your company name.
- 5). Contact your state trademark office and run a LLC name search of its trademark database. Alternatively, you can use a online resource such as trademark.com to run an LLC name search of registered trademarks at the state level. Some states include this in their business name databases. If so, there is no need to perform this step.
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