HOW TO GET AN ASSUMED NAME

Assumed Names are also known as DBA or “Doing Business As”, Business License, and Certificate of Ownership. According to Illinois Revised State Statues no person or persons shall conduct or transact business in the State of Illinois without filing the name of the business in the County where the business is located. In Winnebago County, you must file your Assumed Name in the Winnebago County Clerk’s office. All sole proprietorship and partnership businesses in Winnebago County must file for an Assumed Name unless you are using your own name as the name of the business. Example: John Brown is acceptable; The John Brown Company is not acceptable.

Application forms are available in the County Clerk’s office. (NOTE: If you are starting a corporation, you will file in Springfield, Illinois.)

Here is the procedure for filing for an Assumed Name.

1. Come into the County Clerk’s office and pick-up the “Assumed Name Certificate of Intention” form or call our office at (815) 987-3050 and we will mail the form to you.
2. The “Assumed Name Certificate of Intention” form is in triplicate and must be filled out in Black ink.
3. If you fill out the form before you bring it into the County
   Clerk’s office, your signature must be notarized before you bring the form into the County Clerk’s office. If you fill out the form in the County Clerk’s office, you can sign your name in front of a deputy clerk and the deputy clerk will place the Winnebago County Clerk’s seal on the form.
4. Bring a valid driver’s license or state ID for identification purposes.
5. There is a $5.00 filing fee to be paid.
6. The form will be file dated. You will be given a receipt for the $5.00 payment, and two copies, a pink and a yellow, of the “Assumed Name Certificate of Intention”.
7. Take the receipt and two copies of the “Assumed Name Certificate of Intention” to a local newspaper. It must be a newspaper that publishes at least once a week, publishes news, and has a legal notice section in their paper. NOTE: The notice must appear in the newspaper within 15 days from the initial filing in the County Clerk’s office.
8. The newspaper will publish the notice once a week for three consecutive weeks in the legal notice section of the newspaper. Payment of the fee for publication in the newspaper is the responsibility of the business owner.
9. Upon completion of the three week publication, the newspaper will usually mail the Winnebago County Clerk’s Office a Certification of Publication. Check with your newspaper to be sure they mail out Certification of Publication.
10. The County Clerk’s office will then issue your Assumed Name “Certificate of Ownership” which shows that your business is registered in Winnebago County.
11. Your business should not be operating under the Assumed Name until you have received the Certificate of Ownership from the Winnebago County Clerk’s Office.
12. In the future if there are any changes in ownership or addresses of owners or the business, this information will need to be updated and filed in the County Clerk’s office.

If you have any questions, please call our office at (815) 987-3050.