Before you can incorporate a company in Canada, no matter what province or territory you live in, you will be required to provide some form of name search and as well, you might also be required to provide a name search to register a proprietorship, business name or a partnership.

A preliminary name search is a pre-check of a proposed company name, business name or sole proprietorship name before you order your full Nuans name search report or other similar name search. Having a preliminary name search done prior to ordering a full search can save money in the long run.

The full name search is reviewed by the government to determine if there are any names which can be consider a conflict. It does this before it allows you to register your business. The federal government in particular will not accept a proposed name that sounds similar to a company name already registered.

When you order a Nuans Name Search or name search report with a search house normally the search house will do a preliminary name search as part of the service. You should question this in advance or confirm this on the website of the search house. You should not have to pay for both a preliminary and a full name search separately. The only time a preliminary name search should be paid for separately is if you are registering a business name, proprietorship or partnership and the province or territory in which you register does not require a full name search. More about that below.

There is no guarantee that a name is going to be accepted by a government just because you have a name search report for that proposed name. If a preliminary name search is not part of the service of the search house when you order a Nuans name search or similar search report then you should look for another search house. A Nuans search house has the ability to order a Nuans report without a pre-check of the name but a fully trained search house would never do so without a preliminary check of the name just to try and rule out any advance conflicts.

Reckon of it this way. Say you plot to incorporate a business with the name Johnson Lawn Services Ltd. The search house you are working with tells you there is no other name registered exactly as that. The search house does not bother to pre-check names as part of their service and there is a name already registered called Johnson Lawn Services Inc. Since the search house has told you there is no exact name you register your company. Mr. Johnson of Johnson Lawn Services Ltd. becomes aware that you have registered a company with nearly the exact name except the ending. He considers this competition and since he has had his name for a number of years he decides to sue you to obtain an order to force you to change your company name. It is possible he could obtain an order such as this if he can prove your name is a conflict. This would cause you wasted time and money. Further, would you really want to have a company with a name that close to another company’s name. It would also be a problem for you.

Upon receipt of a Nuans report or similar name search report you must take some time to look over the report to ensure for yourself before in register a business that there are no names that are too similar to the one you proposed to use.

A Name search would be accepted for registering a company in Ontario even if the names are nearly 100% identical. Referring back to the two names above, these names only differ because of the last word in the name. The Ontario Ministry of Government Services would accept this even though both names are very close. This would not be the case with the federal government since they are more careful with name acceptances.

If you are registering a business in Alberta, Ontario and possibly some of the other provinces or territories in Canada, you do not need a name search in order to register your name. The government does not as a practice pre-check these types of names and therefore it is your responsibility to make sure you do not have a name similar to another name. You could still be taken to court if you do not ensure your name is different than others. Really the corporate governments in Ontario and Alberta allow for business names to be registered that are exactly alike.

In these cases it is a excellent thought to do a preliminary name search which you would need to pay for. Therefore in a case where you do not have to provide a name search report to register a business name, partnership or sole proprietorship, you should do a preliminary name search. Keep in mind that many search houses will do the preliminary name search for free if you chose their service to register your business name, but, if you have any concerns about that just write them and question them what the policy is before you buy.

Resources for Canadian Business Owners provides information about legal and government services for Canadian businesses as well as further information to Search Business Names.

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