Enter words related to your business to get started.
Key Information
Legal Name | Mississippi Secretary of State |
Address | 401 Mississippi St., Jackson, MS 39201 |
Telephone | |
Website | https://corp.sos.ms.gov/corp/portal/c/page/corpBusinessIdSearch/portal.aspx |
How to Do a Mississippi Business Search:
Before starting a business, you will need to ensure that your chosen business name is available. Simply follow our step-by-step guide to check if your name is already in use by another company.
Conduct a Mississippi business search online.
Use the Mississippi SOS online business search tool.
The Mississippi SOS website has a business search tool that enables users to search a database of every registered business in the state. New businesses can use this tool to query the availability of their proposed name against businesses that already exist.
Choose the "Business Name" tab.
The business search tool can perform four types of searches: by "Business Name," "Business ID," "Officer ID," and "Registered Agent." Choose "Business Name" and ignore the rest. Your only task is to find a match to your proposed name.
Make a list of alternative spellings or similar versions of your proposed name to ensure that your name is entirely new and distinguishable from competitors.
Perform a search.
The "Search Criteria" feature allows you to filter your search in five different ways: "Starting With," "All Words," "Any Words," "Sounds Like," or "Exact Match."
You'll want to try all of them. The broader your name search, the more chance you have of finding a match. Start by searching only the main keyword from your business name (for example, "restaurant"). This will give you an overview of Mississippian businesses competing with that word and how they're named. Remember to try as many variations of your proposed name as possible.
A search that yields no results is a good first sign on the path to confirming the availability of your proposed name.
Business names that are not listed as "Good Standing" are not necessarily available to use. In most of these cases, businesses have a window in which they can reactivate their business names. You should query the availability of such names by contacting the SOS.
Additional Mississippi business search steps.
Perform trademark searches.
You'll need to check your proposed business name against the Mississippi trademark database and the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) trademark database.
A name that is free to use does not guarantee ownership of intellectual property. Likewise, a name that is free to use in Mississippi might be a trademarked name at the federal level, which can lead to legal trouble in the future. You'll want to ensure that your proposed name passes the USPTO database query too.
Search social media platforms.
You'll want to ensure that the Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter handles for your proposed name are not taken, for the sake of consistency across your marketing channels. Search your proposed name on these platforms and think of creative alternatives should they already be in use.
Reserve your business name.
You do not need to register your business name immediately. You can choose to reserve it for 180 days before officially claiming it. The cost to reserve a business name is $25.00.
Start by creating an account with the SOS or logging in if you have done so already.
Once you've logged in, select "Reserve a Business Name" and fill out the online application form.
If you'd prefer to mail it to the SOS offices, simply print out the completed form and deliver it to the listed address.
