Help with company name & duns

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by AppNasty, Sep 27, 2019.

  1. AppNasty

    AppNasty Member

    Sep 27, 2019
    11
    3
    3
    Male
    Game Developer | Artist
    Florida, USA
    #1 AppNasty, Sep 27, 2019
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2019
    Ok, so I applied for a DUNS. I guess I did it wrong because company name is my name and TRADE STYLE is AppNasty. Goal is of course to reflect AppNasty on Apple store versus my personal name.

    1. Am I going to need to reapply for a new DUNS?

    2. I’m reading I need to register my business and get certain documents to send to Apple as well as provide when registering a new duns so the duns number reflects AppNasty as business name instead of my name. Where do I go to do this? Every gov site I’ve been on lead me nowhere. one stating I don’t need to register.

    3. What do I need to do in order for them to see it as a company? Hire people?

    I don’t mind spending money if I have to in order to register AppNasty as an official business but can’t seem to find out where to do it. I read that Apple doesn’t recognize fictitious names. Is Microsoft a fictitious name? TouchArcade? Google? Why is there company name different from mine? What do I need to do to to be able to be seen as company and not my own name? Sorry I’m repeating myself but this stuff is super confusing. Lol.

    Edit: Reading over apples requirements page, it says they don’t accept dba, fictitious names or trade styles. How on earth does a guy like me achieve this? How did Voodoo get their name on their store page? What do I need to apply for? I’m cool with my store showing AppNasty at top and Seller: My Name, at bottom. But how?
     
  2. Potato Toot

    Potato Toot Active Member
    Patreon Indie

    Dec 25, 2017
    28
    2
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    Male
    Indie Game Dev
    United States
    Hello,

    It's been a while since I needed this information but I will try to give you the information as I remember it (I was able to get my company name listed for my apps on the App Store). First, I applied for an LLC in my home state (Texas). This cost about $300 as I recall (a one time fee). [ LLC's exist in the state they are created, and where you or your register agent lives (registered agent will be you), so someone in another state could, technically, create an LLC in their state with the exact same name.] Anyway, the website for my Secretary of State (in Texas) had the forms for creating the LLC. Your state should have a website for creating your LLC (if that's the route you want to take). Just to clarify, as I recall, Apple did not allow DBA's for company name on the app store; so you would have to go with an LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp (forget about LLP or partnerships). So my advice is for LLC's, the other options require way too much effort and paperwork (like saving minutes of meetings, recording officer elections...these things must be recorded even if you are the only one in the corporation!) Once I created the LLC (I believe I received a registration number), my next step was applying for an EIN. That's your taxpayer identification number basically (even if you are a sole member LLC and will be taxed an an individual, go get an EIN). You get that through irs.gov. After I got that, I either contacted Duns and Bradstreet or set up my business bank account (I can't remember, it's been awhile, but I needed my EIN for my bank account I believe). After those things were taken care of I was pretty easily able to set up my business account with the App Store. One more thing, LLC names have LLC or Limited Liability Company appended to their name, so your company name would be AppNasty LLC (I'm sure you've seem GmbH or SARL on app store company names, that's like certain European versions of an LLC, German and French-Speaking, respectively).

    Hope this info helps. I would say start off by checking which state government agency you need to contact to register/create your LLC. Oh yeah, usually the first step is to make sure no one has a business with the name you want (I think your safe on that one) ;) That state agency will allow you to check, just to make sure.

    There are certain codes you will have to look up, like what kind of business you will be running. It's tedious, but once you find the info (and save it) you'll be fine.

    Good Luck. Let me know if you have any questions. But I'm sure your state's website for businesses will guide you (that's what they're there for).

    -William
     
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  3. AppNasty

    AppNasty Member

    Sep 27, 2019
    11
    3
    3
    Male
    Game Developer | Artist
    Florida, USA
    I sat on phone with Apple for an hour with 3 diff people. They ended up making my store say my name and USA lol. So Joshua Higgins U.S.A. I don’t know. Every person I spoke to was confused as I am. I asked specifically how do I make my store say AppNasty and not my name and no one could tell me. Thanks for the info. Way more then they offered.
     

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