Delaware Name Reservation (Why Should You Do It And How)

Should you reserve a business name in Delaware?

How do you do a Delaware name reservation?

What are the important elements you should know!

Keep reading as we have gathered exactly the information that you need!

Let’s dig into business name protection strategies!

Are you ready?

Let’s get started!

Why do a Delaware name reservation

Reserving your company name in Delaware in some cases can be quite useful.

Typically, you’ll want to reserve your company name in Delaware to ensure that your company’s desired name is available before you form the corporation.

You don’t necessarily have to reserve your company name before forming your entity in Delaware but in case you want to ensure that nobody else takes the name during your filing process, you should then make sure you reserve your company name.

For how long is the company name reserved 

When you file for a corporate name reservation, the State of Delaware will reserve the name for you for a period of 120 days.

During this period of time, no other company can be formed with the same name that you have reserved.

This is an important advantage when you have thought of your company name today but you are not ready to file your paperwork at this time.

To protect your company’s name until you complete your filing process, you can reserve your company name until everything is formally officialized.

Name reservation Delaware considerations 

You can reserve the name for any type of entity in Delaware, such as:

• Corporations
• Limited liability companies
• Limited partnerships
• Limited liability partnerships 
• Statutory trusts
• Partnerships 

If you are looking to reserve your company name, you should take into account some of the benefits and drawbacks.

Here are the reservation of name considerations in Delaware:

• You have the benefit of protecting your desired company name for 120 giving you time to form your company without running the risk of losing your company name
• You must pay a business name reservation fee of $75 (non-refundable)
• If the name you reserved needs to be slightly changed, you’ll need to pay the reservation fee again
• You must make sure you keep your name reservation receipt 
• Your company formation process can be delayed if you are doing a name reservation at the same time 

How to reserve entity name online

The process can be handled either online by reserving your entity name on Delaware’s official website or by completing the downloadable forms offered to this effect.

Here is the process of how to reserve your business name online.

Step 1: State of Delaware’s Department of State Division of Corporations website

The first step is for you to go to the State of Delaware’s website to access the Delaware Name Availability Search tool.

Step 2: Disclaimer

The next step for you to read the posted disclaimer and check the box where it says “I have read and understand the disclaimer”

Step 3: Select the “Entity Kind” by choosing any of the options made available to you, such as:

• Corporation
• Statutory trust
• Limited partnership (LP)
• Limited liability partnership (LLP)
• Limited liability company (LLC)
• General partnership (GP)
• LLC registered series (RSELLC)
• LP registered series (RSELP)

Step 4: File number entry

The next step is to enter your file number to complete the process.

If the name of the company is available, at the end of the online process, you will be able to proceed with the entity name reservation.

Step 5: Pay fees

The last step is for you to pay the fees of $75 to complete the name reservation process.

Name reservation using forms

If you cannot use the online tool to reserve your Delaware legal entity name, you can use the forms made available to you.

There is a different form for every different kind of legal entity, such as:

• Corporation name reservation
• Statutory trust name reservation
• Limited partnership name reservation
• Limited liability partnership name reservation
• Limited liability company name reservation
• General partnership name reservation 

Step 1: Complete the cover letter form

For all the legal entities, the first page of the form is the cover letter where you will need to put basic information with regards to your Delaware name reservation application.

The cover letter looks like the below:

Step 2: Complete the name reservation form

The next step is for you to complete the name reservation applicable to the type of entity you are looking to eventually form using the desired name.

Step 3: Pay fees

To pay your Delaware name reservation fees, you should write a check for the amount of $75 payable to the Delaware Secretary of State.

The check should be included with your completed forms when you mail everything to the Delaware Secretary of State.

Takeaways 

In this article, we looked at who can reserve a company name in Delaware, why you should consider doing it and how it’s done.

Let’s look at a summary of our findings.

Delaware name reservation:

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