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I own an LLC-based out of California in the bay area. While I own the basic domain for my company, I intend to launch my entity's first project using a different domain/name. That is, it's still owned and operated under the wing of my company, but the project name is not the same as the company name. Same is true for the domain. e.g., MyCompany.com vs MyProduct.com.

Given this, do I need to register the domain of the product as a fictitious (dba) name associated with the company? Or is it sufficient to simply specify company ownership in my site's domain whois info, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and maybe the About Us sections? Additionally, if it is recommended that I file a fictitious name specific to the project, do I need to include the tld? (MyNewProject.com) Or is the high level name sufficient (MyNewProject)

I don't know if this effects anything, but the project's monetization is affiliated-based... Simply sending leads.

Thanks!

Edit: Just to clarify a little more, I intend to release numerous projects under the LLC, each with different names. Just starting out with this first project though :)

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2 Answers

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Just because you have a product with the name MyProduct does not mean you are doing business under that name. You are still doing business under the name MyCompany unless you represent the product name as a company name.

The real question is to what extent you have to identify the name of your company on the website for your product. I've never heard of any such requirements, and if any exist, it is probably state or local law, and I would imagine, minimal. Listing MyCompany LLC anywhere in whois or on the website would probably be sufficient.

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Relax! There's nothing to stop you registering any ".com" domain name that you can find -- you don't need to have any association between your business name and the domain name.

You do want to include your company details in the whois data, however, and it is definitely a good idea to include the company name in the legal small print.

If you want to secure traffic to your site through an SSL certificate (for https:// traffic) then you must have your current company details listed in the whois record. You'll need to provide appropriate documentation when you purchase the SSL certificate -- registrars differ, but an example is here.

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