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Official state business registers

Secretary of State Business Entity Search

Search official business registers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia by name. LLC lookup, corporation records, partnerships and nonprofit filings. Free, no account, and every result links back to the state's own records.

51 state guides 51 jurisdictions covered

Search by state

Every state keeps its own register, and a name is only taken if it is taken in that state. Pick yours to search it.

What this checks

Every US state keeps its own register of business entities, and a name is only taken if it is taken in that state. The search above queries the register for the state you choose and tells you whether a matching record exists today.

Every result links the official register for that state, which is where anything that has to be official should come from.

A clear result is not an approval

No match means the name is not on the register today. It does not mean the state will accept it. Every state applies its own comparison rules when it reviews a filing, and can refuse a name that is confusingly similar to one already registered even when nothing matches exactly. Treat a clear search as a good sign and a filing decision as the answer.

The register is not the trademark register

State registration records a name with a state. It does not create trademark rights, and it does not stop anyone else using the name. Those are separate systems run by different offices, which is why a name can be free on a state register and still conflict with a live federal mark.

We hold 3,374,058 live federal trademark registrations from the United States Patent and Trademark Office — abandoned applications and cancelled registrations excluded — and every search checks the name against them. Where we have measured it, between 2.5% and 7.0% of registered business names contain a word that also appears in a live federal mark — here is how often it matters.

What this is not

EntityFinder is an independent reference. We are not a government agency, we are not affiliated with any Secretary of State, and we cannot file anything on your behalf or tell you whether a name will be accepted. Anything that has to be official comes from the state, and every page here links to the office that holds the record.

Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.

Data sources: official state Secretary of State registers, U.S. Census Bureau via FRED, USPTO trademark records, and state bulk data where published.  Independent reference. Not a government agency.