Serve IBM Corporation: NY Domestic, March 2026 RA Reassignment

As of 2026, International Business Machines Corporation is a New York domestic corporation incorporated June 16, 1911, with registered-agent service in New York routed through CT Corporation System at 28 Liberty Street, Manhattan — a designation that may have changed in the March 17, 2026 multi-state registered-agent reassignment cycle and requires pre-dispatch verification.

International Business Machines Corporation is the original New York technology corporation. Filed with the New York Department of State on June 16, 1911 (filing of record #30059; current modern entity reference DOS ID:1012069), IBM has remained a New York domestic corporation continuously for one hundred fifteen years — across the corporate-governance migration to Delaware that swept Fortune 50 entities in the 1980s through the 2000s, IBM did not redomesticate. The procedural consequence in 2026 is direct: service of process on IBM as a domestic-state defendant routes through New York Business Corporation Law and CPLR § 311(a)(1), not through Delaware’s analogous statutory framework. Counsel applying Delaware service mechanics to IBM has a fundamental procedural mismatch at the threshold of the matter. The March 17–20, 2026 coordinated registered-agent reassignment event — recorded across sixteen state-of-qualification filings within a three-day window, plus one additional April 10, 2026 filing of unconfirmed state attribution — compounds the verification burden: pre-March-2026 service contracts and treatise entries that listed IBM’s foreign-qualification registered agents in those states are likely stale in 2026, and counsel relying on those sources may direct service to addresses that no longer accept process for IBM.

IBM’s corporate headquarters at 1 New Orchard Road in Armonk, New York — Westchester County, approximately thirty-five miles north of Manhattan — houses the IBM executive offices and the IBM corporate-secretarial function, but the Armonk reception desk is not a registered agent for the corporate entity, and process accepted at the corporate office does not satisfy the statutory service requirement under either FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) or CPLR § 311(a)(1). Service on IBM in New York routes to the registered-agent designation recorded in the New York Department of State filing for DOS ID:1012069 — the New York domestic-corporation filing that has been continuously active since 1911 — verified against the current filing record before any service event, with particular attention to any registered-agent change recorded during the March 2026 coordinated reassignment cycle. Counsel managing matters across IBM’s multi-state foreign-qualification footprint can reach Undisputed Legal’s New York metro coordination desk at (212) 203-8001 for pre-dispatch entity verification, current state-specific Secretary-of-State lookup, and multi-jurisdiction tour planning when the matter spans more than one state.

Undisputed Legal coordinates IBM Corporation service across New York domestic-state filings and across the thirty-seven-state foreign-qualification footprint, with state-specific registered-agent verification adapted to the post-March-2026 reassignment record. To order service on International Business Machines Corporation or any IBM-affiliated entity, call (800) 774-6922 or use the link below.

Order IBM Corporation Service Now

Why IBM Is a New York Corporation, Not a Delaware Corporation

The state-of-organization question is the first question counsel must answer in any IBM service matter, because it determines which procedural framework governs the service event, which Secretary-of-State filing record is the authoritative source of registered-agent designations, and which substituted-service path applies if the registered-agent designation is unavailable. The answer for IBM is unusual among Fortune 50 corporations and is the source of the most common IBM-service captioning error: IBM is a New York domestic corporation, not a Delaware corporation. Counsel preparing an IBM matter in 2026 must caption the entity to reflect its actual state of organization (New York), select procedural rules from New York’s statutory framework (CPLR § 311(a)(1) for state court; FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) for federal court), and verify registered-agent designations against the New York Department of State filing record for DOS ID:1012069 — not against Delaware Department of State, which has no domestic-corporation filing for IBM.

The 1911 New York Incorporation — Filing of Record #30059, Modern Reference DOS ID:1012069

International Business Machines Corporation was incorporated in New York on June 16, 1911 — originally as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, established in Endicott, New York, and renamed International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. The historical filing of record carries the 1911 number #30059; the modern New York Department of State entity-lookup reference for the same continuously-active filing is DOS ID:1012069. The filing has remained continuously active across the entity’s name change, across the corporate-governance migration that moved most Fortune 50 entities to Delaware in the 1980s through the 2000s, and across IBM’s expansion from a punched-card tabulating machinery manufacturer into the diversified technology and consulting enterprise it operates as in 2026. The 1911 New York incorporation predates the modern Delaware General Corporation Law revisions that made Delaware the preferred state of organization for governance flexibility, and IBM’s corporate-secretarial function did not pursue redomestication when the Delaware migration accelerated. The result is a New York domestic corporation with a one-hundred-fifteen-year continuous filing history at the New York Department of State and a corporate-governance framework that applies New York Business Corporation Law to questions of director duties, shareholder rights, dissolution procedures, and internal-affairs analysis.

The continuous-filing record matters operationally. The DOS ID:1012069 filing record records every registered-agent change, every name change, every certificate of amendment, and every certificate of merger that has been filed against the IBM corporate entity since 1911. Pre-dispatch verification of IBM’s current registered-agent designation in New York pulls the most recent registered-agent change recorded against DOS ID:1012069 — including the March 17, 2026 Certificate of Change by Entity that recorded a registered-agent change effective on that date. Counsel preparing an IBM matter in 2026 cannot rely on a 2024 or 2025 source for the New York registered-agent address; the March 2026 change record supersedes any earlier designation, and the current designation must be pulled from the New York Department of State filing record at the pre-dispatch stage.

New York-Domestic Service Mechanics — CPLR § 311(a)(1), NY BCL § 306

For matters venued in New York state courts against IBM as a New York domestic corporation, service of process proceeds under CPLR § 311(a)(1), which authorizes service on a corporation by delivery to an officer, director, managing or general agent, or any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process. The registered agent designated in the New York Department of State filing record for DOS ID:1012069 is an agent authorized by appointment for purposes of CPLR § 311(a)(1), and service on the verified current registered agent — at the address recorded in the most recent registered-agent change against DOS ID:1012069 — satisfies the statutory service requirement against IBM in New York state-court matters. For matters venued in any New York federal district (SDNY, EDNY, NDNY, WDNY), service proceeds under FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) on the same New York registered agent.

Where the New York registered-agent designation is unavailable — the registered agent has resigned, has relocated to an address not yet reflected in the current Department of State filing, or is otherwise not present at the designated address during business hours — New York Business Corporation Law § 306 supplies the substituted-service path. NY BCL § 306 authorizes service on the New York Department of State as statutory agent of the domestic corporation, with the Department of State forwarding the process to the corporation at the address designated in the corporate filing. NY BCL § 306 substituted service is executed by delivery to the Department of State at One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12231-0001, accompanied by the statutory service fee and a designated mailing address for the Department of State to forward the process. NY BCL § 306 is reserved for the unusual case where direct service on the registered agent is unavailable.

Why Delaware Service Mechanics Do NOT Apply

Counsel preparing an IBM matter who applies Delaware service mechanics — under the assumption that all Fortune 50 corporations are Delaware-organized — encounters a fundamental procedural problem at the threshold. Delaware General Corporation Law § 321 governs service on foreign corporations qualified to do business in Delaware, requiring service on the registered agent designated in the Delaware foreign-qualification filing. IBM is not a Delaware-organized corporation. IBM does not have a Delaware domestic-corporation filing. IBM does have a Delaware foreign-qualification filing — but that filing applies only to matters venued in Delaware (Delaware state court or the District of Delaware federal court), and the procedural framework is Delaware’s foreign-corporation framework, not Delaware’s domestic-corporation framework. For matters venued anywhere outside Delaware, IBM’s Delaware foreign-qualification filing is not the operative source of registered-agent designations.

The mistake compounds at the discovery stage and at any contested-service motion stage. A Rule 12(b)(5) motion to quash service against IBM in a non-Delaware federal venue, briefed against Delaware service mechanics, mischaracterizes the controlling procedural framework. The correct framework is FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) applied to IBM’s actual state of organization (New York) and to the registered-agent designation recorded in the controlling state filing — for matters venued in New York, the DOS ID:1012069 record; for matters venued in a foreign-qualification state, that state’s Secretary-of-State filing for IBM’s foreign-qualification record. The Delaware service framework applies to a Delaware-organized corporation. IBM is not Delaware-organized, and the framework does not apply.

State of organization is operational, not stylistic — Delaware service mechanics do not apply to a New York domestic corporation, and the procedural rules selected at the pre-dispatch stage must match the corporation’s actual state of organization rather than industry assumption about Fortune 50 governance patterns.

The March 2026 Multi-State Registered Agent Reassignment

The March 17–20, 2026 multi-state registered-agent reassignment event is the editorial centerpiece of any IBM service matter in 2026. Sixteen states recorded coordinated registered-agent change filings within a three-day window in mid-March 2026, plus one additional April 10, 2026 filing whose state attribution requires direct Secretary-of-State verification. The empirical filing record establishes the event without requiring inferences about its underlying cause: counsel preparing an IBM matter in 2026 must verify current registered-agent designations against post-March-2026 state-of-qualification filings, not against pre-March-2026 source documentation, and must pay particular attention to any of the affected states where the matter will be served.

The 16-State Coordinated Filing Event

The empirical filing record across IBM’s state-of-qualification footprint shows the following coordinated registered-agent change events. The New York Department of State recorded a Certificate of Change by Entity against DOS ID:1012069 on March 17, 2026 — the home-state change, recording a registered-agent reassignment effective on that date. The Texas Secretary of State recorded two Change of Registered Agent / Office filings against the IBM Texas foreign-qualification record on March 18 and March 20, 2026 — a two-cycle event against the same filing. The Nevada Secretary of State recorded a Registered Agent Change on March 19, 2026.

Additional coordinated changes recorded on March 18, 2026 against IBM’s foreign-qualification filings in: Colorado, Oregon, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, Maine, Idaho, Kansas, and Alaska. Each of these state-of-qualification filings recorded a registered-agent change effective on that date, with the new designation reflected in the current Secretary-of-State filing record. The full sixteen-state list — New York, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, Maine, Idaho, Kansas, and Alaska — is the documented coordinated-event footprint within the March 17–20, 2026 window.

The filing record is the empirical record. The article does not speculate about the underlying business cause of the coordinated event — whether internal IBM corporate-secretarial vendor reassignment, captive-finance subsidiary restructuring, registered-agent vendor consolidation, or other internal corporate change. Counsel evaluating IBM matters in 2026 needs the empirical record to verify current registered-agent designations correctly. The cause of the change is not material to the procedural-framework analysis; the fact of the change is.

The April 10, 2026 Filing — Unconfirmed State Attribution

An additional Change of Address of Registered Office or Agent filing was recorded on April 10, 2026 against an IBM state-of-qualification filing. The state attribution of the April 10 filing is unconfirmed in the source record at the time of writing — the filing may be a follow-on amendment to one of the sixteen states already counted in the March 17–20 cycle, or it may be one whose state attribution requires direct Secretary-of-State verification. Pre-dispatch verification mandatory: counsel preparing an IBM matter in any state-of-qualification venue should query the current Secretary-of-State filing for the venue state, identify any registered-agent change recorded between March 17, 2026 and the present, and pull the current registered-agent designation accordingly. The April 10 event does not change the operational discipline; it reinforces it.

Why Pre-March-2026 Captions Need Re-Verification

Counsel preparing an IBM matter in 2026 who relies on pre-March-2026 source documentation — internal memos, treatise entries, prior-engagement files, third-party research databases that have not been refreshed since the March 2026 cycle, or service contracts negotiated in 2024 or 2025 — encounters a high-probability stale-data problem in any of the sixteen affected states (and prudently in the unconfirmed April 10 state). The pre-March-2026 registered-agent designation in those states has been superseded by the March 17–20, 2026 (or April 10, 2026) reassignment, and dispatch to the prior registered-agent address produces a rejected-service return when the prior agent declines to accept process for an entity it no longer represents.

The procedural cost of the stale-data dispatch is material: a rejected-service return, a remediation cycle of days to weeks, a lost dispatch fee, and in matters approaching a statute-of-limitations deadline, a timeliness consequence on the underlying filing. Counsel managing an IBM matter in any of the sixteen affected states must verify current registered-agent designations at the pre-dispatch stage against the current Secretary-of-State filing record — not against the prior service contract, not against the 2025 treatise entry, not against the 2024 internal memo. The March 2026 reassignment is a hard procedural fact, and pre-dispatch verification is the operational discipline that prevents a rejected return.

How to Verify Current Registered-Agent Designations

Pre-dispatch verification of IBM’s current registered-agent designation in any state proceeds through that state’s Secretary-of-State or Department-of-State portal, querying the IBM corporate filing by name, by filing number, or by FEIN (13-0871985). For New York — the home state — the verification queries DOS ID:1012069 and pulls the most recent Certificate of Change by Entity recorded against that filing (the March 17, 2026 change is the most recent at the time of writing). For any of the sixteen states affected by the March 17–20, 2026 coordinated event, the verification queries the state-specific Secretary-of-State filing for IBM’s foreign-qualification record and pulls the most recent registered-agent change recorded against that filing.

The verification confirms three data points before dispatch: (1) the IBM filing in that state remains in active status (a converted, dissolved, or merged filing produces a different service path); (2) the current registered-agent designation matches the address contemplated in the dispatch package; (3) the registered-agent vendor identity matches the dispatch package addressing. The pre-dispatch verification step is the operational discipline that keeps the IBM dispatch cycle clean.

IBM’s Subsidiary Architecture and Caption Discipline

IBM operates through a small corporate-subsidiary architecture around the parent New York domestic corporation. Five separately-incorporated entities appear in the IBM service-of-process record as subsidiary defendants in their own right: IBM International Foundation (Delaware not-for-profit), IBM Consulting, Inc. (New York domestic corporation), IBM Growth Markets LLC (Delaware LLC), IBM GF International Holdings LLC (Delaware LLC, foreign-qualified in New York), and IBM Construction LLC (New York domestic LLC). Each entity has its own state of organization, its own registered-agent designation, and its own operational scope. Two acquired or spun-off entities — Red Hat, Inc. (acquired 2019) and Kyndryl, Inc. (spun off November 2021) — interact with IBM captioning discipline in distinct ways and are addressed in the closing footnote subsection.

IBM International Foundation — Delaware Not-for-Profit (1985)

IBM International Foundation filed for incorporation on July 16, 1985 under Delaware jurisdiction as a foreign not-for-profit corporation recognized under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation supports organizations involved with arts and culture, K-12 education, the environment, health, employment, human services, diversity, science, public-policy research, and minority-focused initiatives. As a Delaware-organized 501(c) entity, IBM International Foundation maintains its corporate registration with the Delaware Department of State Division of Corporations rather than with the New York Department of State. The Foundation retains a registered agent (CT Corporation System per the 2021 source record) for service of process in Delaware; service on the Delaware registered agent satisfies FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) for federal-court matters and 8 Del. C. § 321 for matters venued in Delaware state court. DOS ID: not applicable (Delaware-only entity, not New York foreign-qualified per the 2021 source) [VERIFY DE SOS PRE-DISPATCH]. Counsel preparing a matter against IBM International Foundation should verify the current Delaware registered-agent designation against the Delaware Division of Corporations record before dispatch, because Delaware-only entities operate on a different verification cycle from the New York domestic-corporation parent and are not affected by the New York Certificate of Change by Entity recorded against DOS ID:1012069 on March 17, 2026.

IBM Consulting, Inc. — New York Domestic (2008)

IBM Consulting, Inc. is a New York domestic business corporation incorporated under New York State jurisdiction on May 1, 2008, with DOS ID:3666096 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH]. The entity is a separate legal person from the parent International Business Machines Corporation despite the shared “IBM Consulting” brand: matters arising from the IBM Consulting practice’s contractual relationships, employment claims arising from IBM Consulting personnel, and matters specifically alleging conduct by the IBM Consulting subsidiary entity name IBM Consulting, Inc. as the operative defendant — not the parent IBM Corporation. The 2021 source record listed the registered agent for IBM Consulting, Inc. as THE CORPORATION at 1170 Broadway, Suite 806, New York NY 10001. Service on the verified current registered agent at the recorded address satisfies CPLR § 311(a)(1) for New York state-court matters and FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) for federal-court matters. The captioning discipline matters because the parent IBM Corporation and the IBM Consulting, Inc. subsidiary share an operating brand identity but are distinct legal persons with distinct DOS IDs (1012069 versus 3666096), distinct registered-agent designations, and distinct service paths. A complaint captioned to “International Business Machines Corporation” alleging conduct that arises specifically from IBM Consulting, Inc. operations may face a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim against the proper party.

IBM Growth Markets LLC — Delaware LLC (2010)

IBM Growth Markets LLC was filed with the Delaware Department of State on November 30, 2010. The entity is incorporated in the State of Delaware and operates as a Delaware-domestic LLC with foreign-qualification status in New York for the limited liability company’s New York operational presence. The 2021 source record identified IBM Growth Markets LLC as a Delaware-jurisdiction entity with its principal place of business in New York; the registered agent is CT Corporation System under the same vendor pattern that applies to most IBM subsidiaries. DOS ID: not preserved in 2021 legacy body; verify against current Delaware Department of State filing and any current New York foreign-qualification status [VERIFY DE SOS PRE-DISPATCH]. Service path for federal-court matters: FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) on the verified Delaware registered agent. Service path for New York state-court matters venued against the entity’s New York operational presence: CPLR § 311 service on the verified current foreign-qualification registered agent — which requires pre-dispatch query against the current New York Department of State filing record because the 2021 source did not preserve the New York foreign-qualification DOS ID. The state-of-organization analysis applies Delaware law to internal-affairs questions: director duties, member rights, dissolution procedure, and corporate-governance disputes proceed under Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, regardless of where the matter is venued.

IBM GF International Holdings LLC — Delaware LLC, NY Foreign-Qualified (2016)

IBM GF International Holdings LLC was established on February 10, 2016 as a foreign limited liability company registered in Westchester County, New York, while falling under Delaware jurisdiction for its corporate-governance and internal-affairs analysis. The entity is foreign-qualified in New York with DOS ID:4894170 and has its principal New York address at 28 Liberty Street, New York NY 10005 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH AND DE SOS PRE-DISPATCH]. The registered agent of record per the 2021 source is CT Corporation System at 28 Liberty Street, New York NY 10005 — the same Manhattan address that serves as the registered-office address for the entity itself, reflecting the corporate-secretarial pattern of co-locating the foreign-qualification address and the registered-agent address at the CT Corporation Manhattan office. Service on CT Corporation System at 28 Liberty Street, executed during business hours, satisfies CPLR § 311(a)(1) for New York state-court matters against IBM GF International Holdings LLC and FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) for federal-court matters. The IBM Global Financing-related operational scope of the entity makes it the proper defendant for matters arising from international-financing arrangements that the captive financing operation supports — distinct from financing arrangements within the United States, which proceed against the parent IBM Corporation under the Global Financing operational unit framework rather than against this separately-incorporated holding company.

IBM Construction LLC — New York Domestic LLC, Personal-RA Designation (2020)

IBM Construction LLC is a New York domestic limited liability company incorporated in Westchester County on October 29, 2020, with DOS ID:5867722 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH]. The entity supports IBM’s internal real-estate-management operations — construction projects, facility development, and related capital-improvement activities at IBM-owned and IBM-leased properties. IBM Construction LLC’s registered-agent designation is the operational anomaly worth flagging: among IBM’s verified subsidiaries, IBM Construction LLC is the only entity that routes service to a personal designated agent at a residential address rather than to a corporate-vendor registered agent. The 2021 source record identifies the registered agent for IBM Construction LLC as ALKET ADEMI at 60 Longview Drive, Scarsdale NY 10458. Most IBM subsidiaries route service through CT Corporation System at 28 Liberty Street, Manhattan; IBM Construction LLC alone routes to a personal designated agent at a Scarsdale residential address. Counsel preparing service on IBM Construction LLC must verify the personal-RA designation against the current New York Department of State filing for DOS ID:5867722 before dispatch, because personal-RA designations are inherently more transient than corporate-RA arrangements: a personal registered agent may relocate, may resign, or may have been replaced by a corporate-vendor designation in any of the years since the 2021 source record. Pre-dispatch verification is the operational discipline that confirms the current personal-or-corporate designation against the live filing record.

Captioning Considerations for Acquired and Spun-off Entities

Two entities outside the five-subsidiary routing matrix interact with IBM captioning discipline. Red Hat, Inc., acquired by IBM in July 2019, operates as a wholly-owned IBM subsidiary while maintaining its pre-existing Delaware corporate identity and its own registered-agent designations. Matters arising from Red Hat product operations — Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift, Ansible, JBoss, and the Red Hat open-source enterprise-software portfolio — name Red Hat, Inc. as the operative defendant and proceed under Red Hat’s separately-recorded service-of-process framework. The 2021 source record for IBM Corporation did not include Red Hat as a routing-matrix entry, and this article preserves that scope: Red Hat service is a separate exercise on the Red Hat corporate identity rather than through the IBM Corporation routing matrix. Kyndryl, Inc. presents a distinct issue: Kyndryl spun off from IBM in November 2021 as an independent New York Stock Exchange-listed company (ticker: KD). Matters arising from infrastructure-services operations conducted on or after November 2021 name Kyndryl, Inc. as the operative defendant and proceed under Kyndryl’s independent service-of-process framework — Kyndryl is not an IBM subsidiary as of 2026 and has not been since the November 2021 spinoff.

Subsidiary Routing Matrix — Verified Service Addresses

The five separately-incorporated IBM subsidiaries below are recorded in the 2021 source as serviceable-on-their-own-corporate-identity entities. The routing matrix preserves the 2021 author’s classification with verification flags appropriate to each entity’s state of organization. Pre-dispatch verification against the controlling Secretary-of-State filing record is mandatory before any service event, because registered-agent designations change independently of any external corporate event and the 2021 source data is now four years old.

Entity	State of Organization	NY DOS ID (if applicable)	Registered Agent (2021 source)	Service Address
International Business Machines Corporation (parent)	New York domestic (1911)	DOS ID:1012069	CT Corporation System (verify post-March 2026)	28 Liberty Street, New York NY 10005 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH — March 2026 RA reassignment]
IBM International Foundation	Delaware not-for-profit (1985)	not applicable (DE-only entity)	CT Corporation System (Delaware)	Per current Delaware Department of State filing [VERIFY DE SOS PRE-DISPATCH]
IBM Consulting, Inc.	New York domestic corporation (2008)	DOS ID:3666096	THE CORPORATION (designated entity name)	1170 Broadway, Suite 806, New York NY 10001 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH]
IBM Growth Markets LLC	Delaware LLC (2010), NY foreign-qualified	not preserved in 2021 legacy body	CT Corporation System (RA pattern)	Per current Delaware filing and current New York foreign-qualification filing [VERIFY DE SOS PRE-DISPATCH]
IBM GF International Holdings LLC	Delaware LLC (2016), NY foreign-qualified	DOS ID:4894170	CT Corporation System	28 Liberty Street, New York NY 10005 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH AND DE SOS PRE-DISPATCH]
IBM Construction LLC	New York domestic LLC (2020)	DOS ID:5867722	ALKET ADEMI (personal designated agent)	60 Longview Drive, Scarsdale NY 10458 [VERIFY NY DOS PRE-DISPATCH — personal RA pattern]

Two entities outside this routing matrix interact with IBM captioning discipline and are footnoted here for completeness: Red Hat, Inc. (acquired 2019, separately serviceable on its own Delaware corporate identity — not routed through any of the IBM Corporation registered-agent designations recorded above) and Kyndryl, Inc. (spun off November 2021, no longer an IBM subsidiary as of 2026 — independent NYSE-listed company with its own service-of-process framework). Counsel evaluating an IBM-related matter against either Red Hat or Kyndryl proceeds under that entity’s own corporate identity and registered-agent designations, not through this article’s routing matrix.

Where to Serve IBM Corporation — Multi-State Coverage

Service on International Business Machines Corporation proceeds under one of three procedural frameworks, depending on the venue state and the underlying claim type. The framework selected at the pre-dispatch stage controls the registered-agent address, the substituted-service path if the registered-agent designation is unavailable, and the affidavit-of-service form prescribed by the venue court.

New York Domestic Service Under CPLR § 311(a)(1) and NY BCL § 306

For matters venued in New York state courts against IBM as a New York domestic corporation, CPLR § 311(a)(1) governs direct service on the registered agent designated in the DOS ID:1012069 filing. Service on the verified current registered agent at the address recorded in the most recent registered-agent change against DOS ID:1012069, properly executed during business hours, satisfies the statutory service requirement against IBM in New York state-court matters. For substituted-service events, NY BCL § 306 supplies the path through the New York Department of State at One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12231-0001.

Delaware Foreign-Qualified Service for IBM-Related Delaware Entities

Three of the five IBM subsidiaries are Delaware-organized: IBM International Foundation (Delaware not-for-profit), IBM Growth Markets LLC (Delaware LLC), and IBM GF International Holdings LLC (Delaware LLC, NY foreign-qualified). Service on Delaware-organized IBM entities proceeds under 8 Del. C. § 321 for matters venued in Delaware (Delaware state court or the District of Delaware federal court), and under FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) on the Delaware registered agent for matters venued in any federal district outside Delaware. The Delaware Department of State Division of Corporations record is the authoritative source for the current Delaware registered-agent designation; pre-dispatch verification queries that record before any service event against a Delaware-organized IBM entity.

Multi-State Foreign-Qualification Footprint

The parent International Business Machines Corporation maintains foreign-qualification filings across thirty-seven states beyond New York. The state-specific procedural framework controls service in each venue: Texas Business Organizations Code § 5.255 in Texas; California Code of Civil Procedure § 416.10 in California; Florida Statutes § 48.091 in Florida; Illinois Code of Civil Procedure § 2-204 in Illinois; and analogous state-specific frameworks in the remaining qualification states. Pre-dispatch verification of the state-specific registered agent against the current Secretary-of-State filing is mandatory for every state — particularly the sixteen states affected by the March 17–20, 2026 coordinated reassignment cycle (New York, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, Maine, Idaho, Kansas, and Alaska) and the unconfirmed April 10, 2026 state. The forum-state selection at the pleading stage is consequential beyond procedural framework: a venue state with a recently-changed IBM registered-agent designation produces additional verification overhead at the pre-dispatch stage compared to a venue state where the IBM filing has been stable since the most recent verified record. Counsel selecting venue between two otherwise-equivalent states may consider the registered-agent currency burden as one input into the venue-selection calculus, alongside the jurisdictional and tactical considerations that drive forum selection in the underlying litigation.

Federal Court Service Under FRCP 4(h)(1)(B)

Federal-court matters against IBM proceed under FRCP 4(h)(1)(B), which authorizes service on a corporation by delivering a copy of the summons and complaint to an officer, a managing or general agent, or any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process. Service on the New York registered agent (for matters venued in New York federal districts) or on the venue-state foreign-qualification registered agent (for matters venued in any other federal district) satisfies FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) for any federal-court matter against IBM, regardless of the federal venue district.

IBM’s corporate headquarters at 1 New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504-1722 is not an authorized service address for the corporate entity. Service routed to the Armonk reception desk produces no satisfactory return-of-service against IBM under either CPLR § 311(a)(1) or FRCP 4(h)(1)(B), because the headquarters reception is not a registered agent and is not authorized by appointment to receive service of process on behalf of the corporation. The authoritative service address is the registered-agent designation recorded in the controlling state filing — DOS ID:1012069 for matters venued in New York, or the state-specific Secretary-of-State foreign-qualification filing for matters venued elsewhere.

Scope of Services

Undisputed Legal delivers service of process. Undisputed Legal does not practice law. The boundary applies with particular rigor to IBM Corporation matters because the entity-disambiguation question — which IBM entity (parent IBM Corporation, IBM International Foundation, IBM Consulting Inc., IBM Growth Markets LLC, IBM GF International Holdings LLC, or IBM Construction LLC) is the proper defendant under the substantive law of the underlying claim — and the post-March-2026 registered-agent verification question are both legal questions answered by counsel and by the corporate-secretarial verification step, not by a process-service vendor.

The specific tasks within counsel’s scope and outside Undisputed Legal’s scope: (1) selecting the entity to be named as defendant in the case caption (parent vs. one of the five subsidiaries based on the nature of the underlying conduct); (2) determining whether the conduct alleged is pre- or post-November-2021 for purposes of the IBM-vs.-Kyndryl captioning question, or whether it arises from Red Hat operations rather than IBM-direct operations; (3) updating pre-March-2026 source documentation to reflect current registered-agent designations across the sixteen affected states; (4) drafting the complaint and any amended complaints; (5) selecting the procedural framework (CPLR § 311(a)(1) for NY state court; state-specific foreign-qualification framework for out-of-state matters; FRCP 4(h)(1)(B) for federal court; 8 Del. C. § 321 for Delaware-organized subsidiary matters); (6) negotiating settlement or trying the matter to verdict.

The specific tasks within Undisputed Legal’s scope: (1) verifying the current registered-agent designation of the captioned IBM entity in the venue state via the current state Secretary-of-State or Department-of-State filing record; (2) coordinating dispatch to the registered-agent address; (3) executing in-person delivery of the summons and complaint or subpoena to an authorized agent at the registered-agent location; (4) recording the service event with GPS-verified timestamping and on-site documentation; (5) preparing the affidavit-of-service return in the form prescribed by the venue court; (6) coordinating multi-state and multi-entity service tours where the matter requires service on multiple IBM entities or service across multiple foreign-qualification states.

The interaction between counsel’s scope and Undisputed Legal’s scope at the pre-dispatch stage is the entity-verification handshake: counsel provides the captioned defendant entity and the venue state; Undisputed Legal verifies the current registered-agent designation of that entity in that venue state, confirms the registered-agent address, and confirms whether the venue state was affected by the March 2026 coordinated reassignment cycle. If the verification step surfaces an issue — the captioned entity has no active filing in the venue state, the registered-agent designation has been updated since the last verified record, the IBM Construction LLC personal-RA designation has been replaced or superseded, or the matter requires a substituted-service procedure rather than direct delivery — Undisputed Legal flags the issue back to counsel for the legal-procedural decision that the issue requires.

IBM’s combination of New York-domestic state of organization and the March 2026 multi-state registered-agent reassignment requires fresh per-state verification at the pre-dispatch stage of every IBM matter — captioning rules, service mechanics, and registered-agent designations all interact at the threshold of every IBM service event, and stale 2025 documentation is the most common source of rejected-service returns. Strategic judgment cannot be delegated to a process-service vendor.

How Undisputed Legal Approaches IBM Corporation Service

The Undisputed Legal operational approach to IBM Corporation service follows a five-phase protocol calibrated to the New York-domestic state of organization and to the post-March-2026 registered-agent verification burden across the sixteen affected states.

Phase 1: Entity verification. Undisputed Legal confirms the captioned defendant entity name, state of organization, and active status against the controlling Secretary-of-State or Department-of-State filing record. For International Business Machines Corporation, the verification queries DOS ID:1012069. For IBM Consulting, Inc., the verification queries DOS ID:3666096. For IBM GF International Holdings LLC, the verification queries DOS ID:4894170 (and the Delaware Department of State filing for the underlying Delaware LLC). For IBM Construction LLC, the verification queries DOS ID:5867722 (with attention to the personal-RA designation pattern). For IBM International Foundation and IBM Growth Markets LLC, the verification queries the Delaware Department of State Division of Corporations record. Entity verification surfaces the parent-vs.-subsidiary issue, the Delaware-mistake issue, the IBM-Consulting-vs.-IBM-Corporation issue, the personal-RA-designation issue (IBM Construction LLC), and the post-spinoff Kyndryl issue.

Phase 2: Registered-agent confirmation. Undisputed Legal verifies the current registered-agent designation for the captioned entity in the venue state. For matters in New York, the verification pulls the most recent registered-agent change recorded against the relevant DOS ID. For matters in any of the sixteen states affected by the March 2026 coordinated reassignment, the verification pulls the most recent registered-agent change recorded against the state-specific foreign-qualification filing. For matters in any other foreign-qualification state, the verification pulls the current registered-agent designation against the state filing without the March 2026 currency concern.

Phase 3: Dispatch coordination. Undisputed Legal coordinates the dispatch package — the summons, the complaint or subpoena, any accompanying procedural documents required by the venue court, and the statutory service fee where applicable — and assigns the dispatch to a process server at the appropriate location for the venue-state registered-agent address. For New York-based registered agents (CT Corporation System, THE CORPORATION, or any other Manhattan-based vendor), dispatch is handled by Undisputed Legal’s New York metro process-service operation. For Westchester-based personal RA designations (the IBM Construction LLC pattern at the Scarsdale residential address), dispatch is handled by an Undisputed Legal Westchester-county process server with familiarity in residential-RA delivery practice. For state-specific foreign-qualification registered agents, dispatch is handled by Undisputed Legal’s affiliated process-service network in the venue state.

Phase 4: GPS-verified delivery. The process server executes in-person delivery of the dispatch package to an authorized agent at the registered-agent location. Delivery is documented in real time with GPS-coordinate verification, timestamp recording, and on-site contemporaneous notes describing the recipient. For substituted-service events under NY BCL § 306 (the New York Department of State path) or analogous state-specific substituted-service procedures, delivery is executed at the state Department-of-State or Secretary-of-State office with the statutory service fee tendered concurrently with the dispatch package.

Phase 5: Affidavit return. Undisputed Legal prepares the affidavit-of-service return in the form prescribed by the venue court — federal-court matters use the FRCP-prescribed return-of-service form; New York state-court matters use the CPLR-prescribed affidavit form; out-of-state matters use the venue-state-prescribed form. The affidavit return incorporates the GPS-coordinate verification data, the timestamp record, the recipient identification, and the description of the dispatch package delivered, supporting the service event against any subsequent Rule 12(b)(5) motion to quash or motion challenging the sufficiency of service.

Note on DMCA designated-agent service: 17 U.S.C. § 512 establishes a separate service-track for copyright-infringement notices to interactive-service-provider designated agents, distinct from general process service. IBM and certain IBM-affiliated operations historically registered DMCA designated agents with the U.S. Copyright Office, with the registry record reflecting at least three distinct designated-agent endpoints associated with the IBM enterprise. The IBM corporate DMCA agent of record per the 2021 source is registered to receive notices at 1 North Castle Drive, Armonk NY 10504, with the designated agent identified by the surname “Berrebi” in counsel capacity. The SoftLayer Technologies operation (an IBM-affiliated infrastructure-services unit) registered a separate DMCA designated agent at 14001 North Dallas Parkway, Suite M100, Dallas TX 75240 — a non-headquarters DMCA endpoint reflecting the SoftLayer operational footprint. The IBM Cloud Video operation (the platform formerly branded Ustream) registered a third DMCA designated agent at 550 Kearny Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco CA 94108. DMCA notices route to the Copyright Office’s DMCA designated-agent registry rather than to corporate registered agents, and the procedural framework is statutory under 17 U.S.C. § 512 (specifically § 512(c)(1)(C) for notification procedures and § 512(g) for counter-notification procedures) rather than under CPLR § 311 or FRCP 4. The DMCA designated-agent service track is a separately-scoped engagement when matters require it; the corporate registered-agent service path described in this article is the general framework for matters outside the DMCA copyright-notice context.

Counsel evaluating an IBM-related copyright matter must distinguish at the threshold whether the underlying claim arises from (a) a DMCA-takedown dispute that requires notice service to the relevant Copyright Office DMCA designated-agent endpoint, or (b) a general copyright-infringement litigation matter that proceeds through standard service of process on the corporate registered agent of the operative IBM entity. The two service tracks are not interchangeable: a DMCA notice served on CT Corporation at 28 Liberty Street does not satisfy the statutory notice requirement under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3); a copyright-infringement summons served on the Armonk DMCA designated-agent endpoint does not satisfy the corporate-defendant service requirement under FRCP 4(h)(1)(B). Counsel determines which framework applies based on the substantive nature of the underlying matter, and Undisputed Legal executes service through the corresponding operational track at the address recorded in the controlling registry or filing.

Common Pitfalls in IBM Corporation Service

The IBM Corporation service path is straightforward when the entity-disambiguation analysis, the state-of-organization verification, and the post-March-2026 registered-agent currency check at the pre-dispatch stage produce a clean result. The pitfalls below are the common departures from the clean path, and the procedural cost of each pitfall is material: a rejected-service return, a remediation cycle, a Rule 12(b)(6) or 12(b)(5) motion target, or in matters approaching a statute-of-limitations deadline, a timeliness consequence on the underlying filing.

Pitfall 1: Captioning IBM as a Delaware Corporation

The most common pitfall in IBM service is captioning International Business Machines Corporation as “a Delaware corporation” — a description that is incorrect at every moment in the entity’s history. IBM has been a New York domestic corporation continuously since June 16, 1911, and has never been redomesticated to Delaware. The Delaware-corporation captioning error is a Rule 12(f) motion-to-strike target on the pleadings and a discovery-phase distraction; more consequentially, it signals to counsel that Delaware service mechanics apply, which leads to the second-order error of routing service through Delaware-specific procedural rules that do not control. The clean caption reads “International Business Machines Corporation, a New York corporation” and tracks the actual state of organization. Counsel must verify the state of organization against DOS ID:1012069 before finalizing the caption.

Pitfall 2: Using Pre-March-2026 Registered-Agent Designations

The March 17–20, 2026 (and April 10, 2026) coordinated registered-agent reassignment cycle superseded the registered-agent designations in sixteen states (plus the unconfirmed April 10 state). Counsel relying on pre-March-2026 source documentation — service contracts negotiated in 2024 or 2025, treatise entries last refreshed in 2024, internal memos that have not been updated since the March 2026 cycle, or third-party research databases with stale data — has a high-probability stale-data problem in any of the affected states. The fix is structural: pre-dispatch verification against the current state Secretary-of-State filing record is mandatory for every 2026 IBM service event, and the prior service-contract registered-agent address cannot be relied upon without the current-filing verification step.

Pitfall 3: Conflating IBM Corporation with IBM Consulting, Inc.

IBM Corporation (the parent New York domestic entity, DOS ID:1012069) and IBM Consulting, Inc. (the New York domestic subsidiary, DOS ID:3666096) share the IBM Consulting brand identity but are distinct legal persons with distinct registered-agent designations. The parent IBM Corporation’s New York registered agent is CT Corporation System at 28 Liberty Street; IBM Consulting, Inc.’s New York registered agent per the 2021 source is THE CORPORATION at 1170 Broadway, Suite 806. A complaint captioned to “International Business Machines Corporation” alleging conduct that arises specifically from the IBM Consulting subsidiary’s contractual relationships, employment matters, or operational decisions may face a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim against the proper party. The corrected caption identifies IBM Consulting, Inc. as the operative defendant and routes service through DOS ID:3666096 rather than DOS ID:1012069.

Pitfall 4: Routing IBM Construction LLC Service to CT Corporation

IBM Construction LLC (DOS ID:5867722) is the only IBM subsidiary among the five recorded entities that uses a personal designated agent — ALKET ADEMI at 60 Longview Drive, Scarsdale NY 10458 per the 2021 source — rather than CT Corporation System or another corporate-vendor registered agent. Counsel preparing service on IBM Construction LLC who routes the dispatch to CT Corporation at 28 Liberty Street has misdirected the package: CT Corporation does not represent IBM Construction LLC and produces a rejected-service return when the package arrives addressed to that LLC. The corrected dispatch routes to the personal-RA address per the verified current designation against DOS ID:5867722. Personal-RA designations are inherently more transient than corporate-vendor arrangements; pre-dispatch verification confirms whether the original 2020 personal-RA designation persists or whether a corporate-vendor replacement has been recorded since.

Pitfall 5: Filing Red Hat Product-Related Claims Against IBM Corporation

Red Hat, Inc. is a wholly-owned IBM subsidiary acquired in July 2019. Red Hat operates under its own pre-existing Delaware corporate identity and maintains its own service-of-process framework distinct from any of the IBM Corporation registered-agent designations recorded in this article. Matters arising from Red Hat product operations — Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift, Ansible, JBoss, the Red Hat open-source enterprise-software portfolio — name Red Hat, Inc. as the operative defendant and proceed against Red Hat’s Delaware corporate identity rather than against IBM Corporation. A complaint captioned to “International Business Machines Corporation” alleging Red Hat product-related conduct names the wrong corporate identity for the underlying operations. The corrected caption identifies Red Hat, Inc. as the defendant.

Pitfall 6: Naming IBM in Post-2021 Infrastructure-Services Matters

Kyndryl, Inc. became an independent New York Stock Exchange-listed corporation in November 2021, when IBM spun off its managed-infrastructure-services business. Matters arising from infrastructure-services operations conducted on or after November 2021 name Kyndryl, Inc. as the proper defendant — not IBM. The captioning question depends on the timing of the underlying conduct relative to the November 2021 spinoff. Pre-November-2021 conduct may continue against IBM as the operative entity at the time; post-November-2021 conduct names Kyndryl, Inc. and routes through Kyndryl’s independent service-of-process framework, not through any IBM Corporation registered-agent designation.

Pitfall 7: Routing Service to the Armonk Headquarters

IBM’s corporate headquarters at 1 New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY is not an authorized service address for the corporate entity. The Armonk reception desk is not a registered agent and is not authorized by appointment to receive service of process under CPLR § 311(a)(1) or FRCP 4(h)(1)(B). Process accepted at the Armonk corporate office produces no satisfactory return-of-service. The authoritative service address is the registered-agent designation recorded in the controlling state filing — DOS ID:1012069 for New York-venued matters, or the state-specific Secretary-of-State foreign-qualification filing for matters venued elsewhere. Dispatch addressed to “1 New Orchard Road, Armonk” is misdirected; the corrected dispatch routes to the verified current registered-agent address in the venue state.

Why Undisputed Legal — Pricing

IBM Corporation service is priced at Tier 2 rates, reflecting the multi-state foreign-qualification verification work, the post-March-2026 registered-agent currency check across affected states, and the entity-disambiguation analysis (parent IBM Corporation vs. five separately-incorporated subsidiaries; plus the separate Red Hat and Kyndryl captioning considerations) that IBM matters require. The pricing tiers below apply to single-event service on a captioned IBM entity at a confirmed registered-agent address; multi-entity tours, multi-state coordination, and substituted-service execution under NY BCL § 306 or analogous state-specific procedures are priced separately based on the specific operational requirements of the matter.

Pricing tiers — Routine: $100–$150 for first attempt within 3-7 business days; Rush: $200–$250 for first attempt within 24-48 hours; Same-Day: $250–$300 for first attempt within hours of dispatch authorization; Stake-Out: $325–$425 for extended observation at the registered-agent location, with stake-out overage billed at an hourly rate of $100–$150 beyond the initial coverage window, for evasive-subject or timing-sensitive matters; Skip Trace: $75 for current-address verification when prior service attempts have failed or when the registered-agent designation has changed.

Stake-out service is rare in IBM Corporation matters because IBM’s New York and multi-state registered-agent locations operate during predictable business hours and accept process during those hours under standard registered-agent practice. Stake-out service is reserved for the unusual matter where pre-dispatch reconnaissance has produced a delivery-timing question, where a registered-agent transition between vendors during the March 2026 reassignment cycle has produced a temporary delivery-availability gap, or where the IBM Construction LLC personal-RA designation in Scarsdale produces a residential-delivery-timing question.

Undisputed Legal operates under New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection License #1420758-DCA. GPS-verified affidavit returns are the evidence-grade documentation standard for each Undisputed Legal service event, supporting the affidavit return against any subsequent Rule 12(b)(5) motion to quash or motion challenging the sufficiency of service. The Undisputed Legal process-service network covers all 50 states and 120+ countries, with affiliated process servers in each U.S. metropolitan area and international service coordination through Hague Service Convention member-state central authorities and through the alternative service paths permitted under FRCP 4(f)(3) for non-Convention countries. IBM-specific compliance: pre-dispatch registered-agent verification across the sixteen states affected by the March 2026 coordinated reassignment cycle is part of standard engagement scoping for IBM matters, with the verification record preserved as part of the affidavit-of-service file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IBM a Delaware corporation or a New York corporation?

International Business Machines Corporation is a New York domestic corporation, incorporated June 16, 1911, with the modern New York Department of State entity-lookup reference DOS ID:1012069. IBM has never been redomesticated to Delaware. The procedural consequence is direct: service of process on IBM as a domestic-state defendant routes through New York Business Corporation Law and CPLR § 311(a)(1), not through Delaware’s analogous statutory framework. Counsel applying Delaware service mechanics to IBM has a fundamental procedural mismatch at the threshold of the matter, and the captioning of IBM as “a Delaware corporation” is incorrect at every moment in the entity’s one-hundred-fifteen-year history.

How does the March 2026 multi-state RA reassignment affect my current IBM caption?

The captioning language is not directly affected by the March 2026 reassignment — IBM remained a New York domestic corporation throughout the cycle, and the March 17, 2026 New York Certificate of Change by Entity recorded a registered-agent change against DOS ID:1012069 without affecting the corporate-name or state-of-organization fields. The service-address language is materially affected: pre-March-2026 source documentation that listed IBM’s registered-agent addresses across the sixteen affected states (New York, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, Maine, Idaho, Kansas, Alaska) plus the unconfirmed April 10 state reflects superseded designations. Counsel preparing an IBM matter in 2026 must verify current registered-agent designations against the current Secretary-of-State filing record before finalizing the dispatch package.

What is the difference between IBM Corporation and IBM Consulting, Inc.?

IBM Corporation (the parent New York domestic entity, DOS ID:1012069) and IBM Consulting, Inc. (the New York domestic subsidiary, DOS ID:3666096) are distinct legal persons. IBM Consulting, Inc. was incorporated under New York State jurisdiction on May 1, 2008 and operates as a separately-incorporated subsidiary of IBM Corp. The two share the IBM Consulting brand identity but have distinct registered-agent designations and distinct service paths: the parent IBM Corporation’s New York RA is CT Corporation System at 28 Liberty Street; IBM Consulting, Inc.’s New York RA per the 2021 source is THE CORPORATION at 1170 Broadway, Suite 806. Matters arising from the IBM Consulting practice’s contractual relationships, employment claims, or operational decisions name IBM Consulting, Inc. as the operative defendant — not the parent IBM Corporation.

Can I serve IBM at its Armonk corporate headquarters?

No. IBM’s corporate headquarters at 1 New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504-1722 is not an authorized service address for the corporate entity. The Armonk reception desk is not a registered agent and is not authorized by appointment to receive service of process under CPLR § 311(a)(1) or FRCP 4(h)(1)(B). Process delivered to the Armonk corporate office produces no satisfactory return-of-service against IBM. The authoritative service address is the registered-agent designation recorded in the controlling state filing — DOS ID:1012069 for matters venued in New York, or the state-specific Secretary-of-State foreign-qualification filing for matters venued elsewhere.

Why does IBM Construction LLC use a personal registered agent instead of CT Corporation?

IBM Construction LLC (DOS ID:5867722, formed October 29, 2020) is the only IBM subsidiary among the five recorded entities that uses a personal designated agent rather than a corporate-vendor registered agent. The 2021 source record identifies the registered agent as ALKET ADEMI at 60 Longview Drive, Scarsdale NY 10458. The reason for the personal-RA designation pattern in this specific subsidiary is not preserved in the public record; the operational consequence is that IBM Construction LLC service routes to a residential Scarsdale address rather than to the CT Corporation Manhattan office that serves most other IBM subsidiaries. Pre-dispatch verification against the current New York Department of State filing for DOS ID:5867722 is mandatory before any service event, because personal-RA designations are inherently more transient than corporate-vendor arrangements.

What is the difference between IBM Corporation and Red Hat, Inc. for service-of-process purposes?

Red Hat, Inc. is a wholly-owned IBM subsidiary acquired in July 2019 that operates under its own pre-existing Delaware corporate identity and maintains its own service-of-process framework. Matters arising from Red Hat product operations — Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift, Ansible, JBoss, and the Red Hat open-source enterprise-software portfolio — name Red Hat, Inc. as the operative defendant and proceed against Red Hat’s Delaware corporate identity. Red Hat is not routed through any of the IBM Corporation registered-agent designations recorded in this article; counsel preparing a Red Hat service matter consults Red Hat’s separately-recorded service-of-process framework rather than this article’s IBM Corporation routing matrix.

Can a subpoena be served on an IBM employee directly, or must it route through the corporate entity?

A Rule 45 subpoena directed at an IBM employee by name — for testimony, for production of documents, or for trial appearance — is a personal subpoena and must be served personally on the individual employee at a location where the individual can be found. Service on the corporate entity that employs the individual does not satisfy the personal-service requirement for an individual subpoena. A separate Rule 45 subpoena directed at IBM Corporation for documents or for a corporate-representative deposition under FRCP 30(b)(6) is served on the corporate entity at its registered-agent designation, but the entity-level subpoena does not bind the individual employee to personal compliance. Matters that require both individual employee testimony and entity-level document production proceed with both subpoena tracks running in parallel.

How long does service on IBM Corporation take through Undisputed Legal?

Standard service on International Business Machines Corporation at a confirmed New York registered-agent address proceeds within 3-7 business days under the routine pricing tier, 24-48 hours under the rush tier, or same-day under the same-day tier. Service on IBM in any of the sixteen states affected by the March 2026 coordinated reassignment cycle adds the pre-dispatch verification step (in standard practice a single Secretary-of-State portal query, completed within an hour during business hours) but does not materially extend the dispatch interval once the current registered-agent address is confirmed. Multi-state coordination — service on IBM in multiple venue states for an antitrust, securities, or commercial-litigation matter with operational connections to multiple jurisdictions — is scoped at the engagement confirmation stage and proceeds on a coordinated dispatch schedule across the affected venues.

For Authoritative Service on IBM Corporation

Undisputed Legal is the gatekeeper of litigation between counsel and the IBM Corporation entity family. Pre-dispatch entity verification, post-March-2026 state-specific registered-agent confirmation across the sixteen affected states, GPS-verified affidavit returns, and the operational discipline to route International Business Machines Corporation through New York-domestic service mechanics — paired with the parent-vs.-subsidiary captioning discipline that distinguishes IBM Corporation, IBM International Foundation, IBM Consulting Inc., IBM Growth Markets LLC, IBM GF International Holdings LLC, and IBM Construction LLC — produce CM/ECF-ready returns of service for commercial litigation, antitrust matters, securities matters, employment matters, and product-liability claims venued in any federal district or state-of-qualification jurisdiction.

Each IBM entity is served at the registered agent confirmed in current state-of-organization and state-of-qualification filings. The Armonk corporate office at 1 New Orchard Road is not an authorized service recipient for International Business Machines Corporation. The Delaware-corporation captioning is incorrect — IBM is a New York domestic corporation since 1911. Pre-March-2026 registered-agent designations across sixteen states are likely stale and require re-verification against current Secretary-of-State filings before dispatch. IBM Construction LLC alone among the verified subsidiaries uses a personal-RA designation in Scarsdale rather than CT Corporation in Manhattan. Captioning is operational; the entity named in the caption is the entity that must be served, at the agent designated by that entity in the state where the matter is filed.

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