If you are thinking about incorporating a business, one of the advantages is the ability to reserve your chosen business name. When you incorporate your business in Ontario, your business name is reserved for use in the province. When you incorporate your business federally, your business name is reserved for use throughout Canada. Sole proprietorships and partnerships do not have this protection, and anyone can start a business with the same or a similar name to your business if you are not incorporated.
Incorporating your business can also offer you additional name protection through a NUANS name search. This search lists similar corporate names and trademarks across Canada to ensure that the searched business name is not currently reserved by another corporation or is not confusingly similar to another corporation’s name. A NUANS report also reserves the proposed corporate name for 90 days, ensuring that no other corporation or trademark can register under a similar name in that time frame. More information on the NUANS report can be found here.
