To register a Delaware DBA, file a trade name certificate online through the Division of Revenue’s statewide registry on the Delaware One Stop portal. The fee is a one-time $25 per trade name, and a single filing now covers the entire state. As of February 2, 2026, Delaware moved DBA registration out of the county Prothonotary offices and into this centralized online system1Delaware One Stop. Register or Modify Trade Names, so older guides that send you to the county courthouse are describing a process that no longer accepts new filings.
Who Has to File
Delaware Code Title 6, Section 3101 requires any person, firm, or association doing business in Delaware under a name that does not disclose the owner’s legal name to file a trade name certificate before transacting business under that name2Delaware Code Online. Delaware Code Title 6 Chapter 31 – Registration of Trade Names.
In practice that pulls in sole proprietors and general partnerships (whose legal name is just the owner’s or partners’ names), along with LLCs and corporations that want to run a brand or product line under a name different from the one on their formation documents. The rule applies whether your business is based in Delaware or elsewhere, though out-of-state filers follow a slightly different path.
How to Register Through Delaware One Stop
Registration has two steps. First, your business needs a valid Delaware business license from the Division of Revenue. If you already operate in Delaware, you likely have one. If your business sits outside Delaware and you only need the trade name, you’ll apply for a Trade Name Only license instead (covered below).
Second, with the license in place, complete the trade name registration on the One Stop portal. You’ll need:
- The trade name you want to use
- Your Division of Revenue business license number
- Your legal entity name
- Names of all owners, members, or partners
- The date the business was organized
- A short description of your business activity
Notarization is no longer required, and the whole application runs online. The One Stop system checks whether the name is already registered as part of the application. If it matches an active DBA, you’ll get a notification.
What It Costs
The trade name filing is $25, one time, per name. That fee is set in Delaware Code Title 6, Section 3103, which directs the Division of Revenue to collect $25 for filing and recording each trade name certificate.
Under the old county system, that same $25 applied per county. A business operating in all three Delaware counties paid $75 for a single DBA; now it’s $25 total regardless of where in the state you operate.
The license sitting behind the DBA has its own cost. A standard Delaware business license runs about $75 per year for a first location. The Trade Name Only license for out-of-state filers is $25 per year. Whichever license applies to you has to stay active for your DBA to remain in good standing.
Registering From Out of State
You don’t have to live in Delaware to register a Delaware DBA. If your business does not operate in Delaware but you need a Delaware trade name for branding, contract, or compliance reasons, apply for a Trade Name Only license first. It costs $25 per year and renews annually. The Division of Revenue requires a Certificate of Good Standing from the Delaware Division of Corporations with the application3Division of Revenue – State of Delaware. Trade Names FAQs.
A single Trade Name Only license can cover multiple trade names, so adding more DBAs under it doesn’t multiply the license cost. If you later start operating in Delaware and pick up a standard business license, the Trade Name Only license is automatically voided because the standard license satisfies the same requirement.
Importantly, the Trade Name Only license does not trigger Delaware gross receipts or business income tax filing obligations. It exists to satisfy the licensing prerequisite for trade name registration, nothing more.
What a Delaware DBA Does and Doesn’t Give You
A DBA is a public notice filing. It is not an intellectual property registration, and the Division of Revenue is explicit: a DBA filing “does not confer any exclusive rights to the use of that name” and “does not prevent others from registering that same DBA nor from using that same name.”
In plain terms, another business could register an identical or confusingly similar name in Delaware, and your DBA alone wouldn’t give you grounds to stop them. If exclusive rights to the name matter, you need a federal trademark through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A trademark grants exclusive legal rights for specific goods or services and provides standing to pursue infringers; a DBA does neither.
Checking the USPTO trademark database before you file is still worth doing. Delaware may approve a DBA that overlaps with someone else’s federal trademark, and using that name could expose you to a federal infringement claim regardless of what the state registry says.
Penalties for Operating Without Registering
Title 6, Section 3106 provides that a person who violates the trade name registration requirements faces a fine of up to $100, imprisonment of up to three months, or both. The penalty applies to each person involved, including every individual member of a noncompliant partnership or association.
The practical consequences often sting more than the statutory penalty. Courts may refuse to enforce contracts entered under an unregistered name, which makes it difficult to collect debts or hold the other side to its obligations. Banks routinely reject business account applications when the applicant can’t produce a valid DBA certificate, and mismatched names between registration documents and operating names are among the most common reasons applications get flagged.
Updates, Transfers, and Older Filings
If your address changes, ownership shifts, or you need to move a DBA from one business license to another, use the Update Trade Name flow on One Stop. There’s no fee for updates.
One exception matters: if the Taxpayer ID tied to your DBA changes, which happens when a sole proprietorship incorporates and gets a new EIN, the Division of Revenue treats that as a new registration rather than an update. You’ll need to register the trade name fresh under the new entity.
If you registered a DBA with a county Prothonotary before February 2, 2026, that registration is still valid. The Division of Revenue maintains the court-filed list alongside the new registry, and you don’t have to do anything. You can voluntarily re-register in the statewide system at no charge if you provide the file number from your original Superior Court filing, though re-registration still requires an associated business license. The payoff is having everything in one place and being able to make future updates online.
Taxes, Bank Accounts, and Publication
A DBA doesn’t create a separate tax obligation. The trade name is an alias for your existing business, and income earned under it goes on the returns you already file. You don’t need a separate EIN for a DBA unless the underlying business structure itself changes.
If you’re registering a DBA so you can open a bank account in the trade name, banks will want to see the DBA certificate. Sole proprietors typically present the certificate on its own; LLCs and corporations usually bring formation documents plus the certificate when the account will be in the trade name rather than the entity’s legal name. Keep your business license current, because an expired or inactive license can trigger a rejection even when the DBA itself is still on file.
Delaware does not require newspaper publication of a new DBA. Once the Division of Revenue processes the filing and records it in the Delaware Trade Name Registry, the registry itself serves as the public notice.