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.
Check a business name
Search the state's official business records.
- Free name check
- Official registers linked
- Federal trademark check
- Not a government agency
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.
Some states publish their register as bulk data. Where one does, we hold a copy and refresh it every night, and a search there returns the full record rather than a yes or no. Everywhere else the search runs against the state’s own system when you ask for it. Either way the official register is linked, and each state page says which applies.
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 6,339,108 federal trademark records from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and every search checks the name against them. Where we have measured it, between 3.6% and 8.6% 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.
Search by state
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.