カリフォルニア州で事業を立ち上げる: Small Business Start-Up Howto (その2)

昨日のエントリー: カリフォルニア州で事業を立ち上げる (その1)の続きです。書類作成に進む前に、ビジネス名を決めておかねばなりません。

The Small Business Start-up Kit for California (Small Business Start Up Kit for California)

名前はビジネスを成功させるためにも、じっくり考える必要があると思います。必要なのは以下の3つです。個人事業を立ち上げることを目的としているので、以下の内容は「Sole Proprietorships」を対象とします。

1. Legal Name
2. Trade Name
3. Fictitious Business Name

Legal Name

Legal Nameはビジネスの所有者の公式な名前です。Sole Proprietorの場合は、本名 (フルネーム)がそれにあたりますので特に悩むことはありません。

The official name of the entity that owns a business. The legal name of a sole proprietorship is simply the full name of the owner.

Trade Name

次に必要なのはTrade Name。これが一般に目にするいわゆる会社名にあたり、会社の看板や電話帳のリスト、請求書などの明細書に載る名前です。

• A trade name is simply the name that a business uses with the public, which may or many not be the same as the name of the business owner or the business's legal name.
• You see trade names on business signs, in the telephone book and on invoices.

銀行口座の開設やローンを申し込むときには、上記のLegal Nameに加えて, Trade Nameが必要になります。

In many transactions, such as opening a bank account or applying for a loan, you'll need to provide the owners' names, the legal name of the business (if different), and the trade name of the business (if different).

Fictitious*1 Business Name

(少々この名前については理解が不十分なところがあるのですが。。。知っている方がいらしたら是非補足をお願い）

The term "fictitious business name" is used when the trade name of a business is different from its legal name. A fictitious business name is sometimes called a DBA name (Doing Business As), as in: "John O'Toole, doing business a Turtle's Class Cars".

例

If John O'Toole named his sole proprietorship Turtle's Classic Cars, the name Turtle's Classic Cars would be a fictitious business name because it does NOT contain the owner's last name, "O'Toole".

上記は本の記述であるが、次に示すFictitiious Business Name Information (http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/Recorder/ficbusnm.htm)のページによると以下のように書いてある。

The Definition of Fictitious Business Name is:

A business name that DOES NOT include the surname of the individual owner, and each of the partners or the nature of the business is not clearly evident by the name.

Fictitious business nameは、それ自体にビジネスの所有者の苗字が含まれてなく、メンバーやビジネスの業種が名前を見ただけでははっきりとはわからない、あやふやな名前のことのようである。

For example, doing business under a name like:

Smith & Jones Associates or Smith & Jones Sons

Would require a Fictitious Business Name be registered, even though the surname of the owner is stated, the words following the surname suggest other owners that are not specifically named.

HOWEVER, doing business under a name like:

John Smith Plumbing or Smith Plumbing

Would not require a FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME be registered, because the owner (John Smith) is conducting business under his legal name.

In the case of a corporation, a FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME is ANY name OTHER than the EXACT corporate name as stated in the articles of incorporation.

以上をまとめると.....

例えば、Sole Proprietorの場合、以下のような具合でしょうか。

	Loegal Name	Trade Name	Fictitious Business Name
例1	Sei Higuchi	Sei's Auto Service	Sei Association
例2	Sei Higuchi	Sei Higuchi Associates	不要 (Trade NameにSurnameが含まれる/Legal Nameが含まれる)

次のエントリーでは、書類手続きについて書きます。

*1:imaginary, 仮想的な