# BRD-001 — A legal company name is required for every entity but a sole proprietor

> The legal company name field must be populated for every entity type except sole proprietor, where TCR wants it omitted and the person's name used instead.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-001
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.company_name`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Deterministic (settled in code from the submitted values)
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** TCR, AWS, Bandwidth, Twilio
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-001/

## Why this rule exists

The legal name is what every downstream check keys on — the IRS match, the duplicate-brand check, the vetting report — so an empty one does not fail politely at the end, it makes the whole registration unverifiable. The sole-proprietor carve-out is the part that catches people: submitting a company name there is as wrong as omitting one anywhere else.

## How to fix it

Enter the legal entity name exactly as it appears on the IRS CP-575 or 147C letter. For a sole proprietor, leave this field empty and populate the first and last name fields instead. Done when the name here matches the tax record character for character.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
company_name: Acme Coffee Co, LLC
```

## Common mistakes

- A sole proprietor who types their trading name here is routed into the wrong verification path and fails an identity check that was never meant to run.