DBA or Doing Business as Law and Legal Definition
DBA or d/b/a means "doing business as." This is a legal term meaning that the name under which the business or operation is conducted and presented to the world is not the legal name of the legal person or persons actually owning it and being responsible for it. DBA’s are officially referred to with other names in several U.S. States. Many US jurisdictions require businesses operating with fictitious names to file a DBA statement for consumer protection purposes. However a DBA filing carries no legal weight in instances where a trademark would be necessary.
The designation "d/b/a" means "doing business as" is merely descriptive of the person or corporation who does business under some other name. Doing business under another name does not create an entity distinct from the person operating the business.' The business name is a fiction, and so too is any implication that the business is a legal entity separate from its owner. [Palmer v. Truck Ins. Exchange, 66 Cal. App. 4th 916, 933 _Cal. Ct. App. 1998_]
