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Business Entities Search Help

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Business Entities Search Help

The Iowa Secretary of State's Office maintains a database of information on every business which has incorporated in the state of Iowa. This includes information on over 200,000 business entities, over 500,000 officers of those business entities, over one million filings from those business entities, and additional information regarding stock, addresses, previous names, agents, etc. Information is also maintained on trademarks registered with our office. All this information can be accessed from this web site.

When you enter a name to search for, certain refinements are made to that string. For instance, the noise words "THE" and "AN" are stripped off the front of the string, and words like "CORPORATION" or "INC" are stripped off the end. These refinements are done to help ensure that the business entity names you are searching for are found.

If you know the business entity number assigned to the company by our office, you may enter that number instead.

Searches will return a maximum of 1000 results. For additional help or explanation, contact our Customer Service area at 515-281-5204.

Liability Statement: While the Iowa Secretary of State's Office makes all reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy of information contained on this website, it makes no representation or warranty as to the correctness or completeness of the information.


Business Entities Results Help

Business No.
The business entity number for the name listed. Click on this number to see detailed information on the business entity.
Name
The name records resulting from the search you have selected.
Status
The record status of the business entity.
Type
The type of name. View list of business entity name types.

Business Entity Name Types

  • AI - Authorized Indistinguishable
  • DF - Domestic Fictitious
  • F - Former Name
  • FA - Former Assumed Name
  • FF - Foreign Fictitious
  • FN - Fictitious Name
  • I - Identifying
  • L - Legal
  • LF - Legal - Foreign Using Fictitious
  • R - Reserved
  • RG - Registered
  • RN - Reserved - NonProfit
  • RP - Reserved - Profit
  • RU - Registered (if real is unavailable)
  • T - Temporary

Notes: These name types are defined in the Iowa Code. To find the definition, look on the Recap screen to see what chapter of the Iowa Code the business entity in question falls under. For example, Iowa Code chapter 490 covers both Domestic and Foreign Profit corporations. Within that chapter, Code section 490.401 defines "Corporate Names" for Domestic and Foreign corporations, while 490.1506 further defines "Corporate Names" for Foreign corporations only. Code section 490.402 defines "Reserved Names" for both Domestic and Foreign corporations, while 490.403 defines "Registered Names" for Foreign Profit corporations only. Other Code sections define other name types for other types of business entities.

If the "Modified?" flag is "Yes", the legal name contains some special untypeable characters. Examples of an untypeable character include the Spanish tilde over the letter "N", or a floating zero depicting a degree symbol in a business entity name like "360 DEGREE CORPORATION".