The legal name field takes the legal name, not the trading name
The requirementstatement
A DBA, trade name, subsidiary name, or product name must not be submitted in the legal company name field.
- Severityseverity
- BlockingBLOCKINGBreaking this rule gets the submission rejected. There is no partial credit.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- brand.company_name vs brand.dba
- Where it liveslayer
- BrandBRAND
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- AI · formAI_FORMExternal recordEXTERNAL_DATA
- A semantic question about what you wrote: whether a description matches a use case, whether a name looks like a filed entity. Judged by a model against written criteria. The fact that settles it lives in a register we cannot query, such as the IRS file, a postal database, or another provider’s tenant. Reported as a warning with the evidence to check, not as a pass.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Fix the fieldRETRY_FIELD
- A better value in the form fixes it. Ekas can rewrite it and re-check.
- Who requires itauthorities
- TwilioAWSPlivoTCR
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
How to fix itremediation
Move the trading name into the DBA field and put the name from the IRS letter in the legal name field. Both fields are submitted, so nothing is lost — the trading name is what reviewers compare against the website, and the legal name is what the tax match runs on. Done when the two fields hold different values and each is in the right box.
A compliant exampleexample
company_name: Acme Coffee Co, LLC · dba: Acme Coffee — not "Acme Coffee" in both
Common mistakespitfalls
- A subsidiary registering under the parent's name fails the same way in reverse: the EIN belongs to the subsidiary, so the parent name matches nothing.
Provider rejection codescodes
The code you get back when this rule is what failed, and whether that provider lets you resubmit.
| Provider | Code | Resubmit |
|---|---|---|
| Twilio | 30918 | Yes |
| Twilio | 30914 | Yes |
Check this yourselfattestation
Ekas flags this from what you submit, but the fact that settles it sits somewhere only you can reach.
Is the value in the legal name field the name printed on the IRS letter, rather than the trading name, a subsidiary name, or the product the messages are about?
- 1Put the two names side by side: the one on the CP-575, and the one on the sign, the invoices and the website.
- 2The IRS name goes in the legal name field; the trading name goes in the DBA field. Both are submitted, so nothing is lost.
What wrong looks like: "Acme Coffee" in the legal name field and nothing in the DBA field. The tax match returns "we could not verify this business" rather than "wrong name", so the EIN gets checked repeatedly instead.
Notesnotes
Rules you will hit next
Other brand rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
BRD-009 is one of 196 brand rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.