(a) Every person, firm, or partnership carrying on in this state any trade or business under any trade name or partnership name or other name which does not disclose the individual ownership of the trade, business, or profession carried on under such name shall, within 30 days from March 29, 1937, or thereafter before commencing to do business, file in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the county in which the business is chiefly carried on or, in the case of a domestic corporation using any name other than its corporate name, in the county of its legal domicile, a registration statement, verified by affidavit, setting forth the name or names and addresses of the person, persons, firm, or partnership owning and carrying on said trade or business and stating the nature of the business being carried on and the trade, partnership, or other name used and shall, upon any change of ownership, likewise file a new and amended statement of registration. Notice of such filing giving the names and addresses of each person, firm, or partnership to engage in business under such trade name or partnership name shall be published in the paper in which the sheriff's advertisements are printed once a week for two weeks. No person, firm, or partnership already registered shall be required to reregister except in the event of a change of ownership.

(b) The clerk shall register the same by filing the verified statement in his office and shall keep an alphabetical index of all such registrations in a permanent record book to be kept in his office, the index to show the trade, partnership, or other name registered and in connection therewith the names of the owners. The applicant for registration shall accompany each registration statement with the fee prescribed by Code Section 15-6-77, relating to fees of clerks of the superior courts, as amended.