Business Name Search | NUANS
First, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you in deciding to start your own business.
Selecting a good name is the first and most likely the major step when starting a new business. Your business name will reflect the product(s) or service(s) you will be offering, how easily your potential customers will recognize your business, and should be distinctive to avoid legal issues.
If and when you have a business name in mind, the easiest way to check to see if the name is being used is by searching the Internet. This will give you first glance if it is being used or very similar to what you have in mind. Remember your business name should be unique to avoid confusion and possible legal issues that can arrise.
Once you are satisfied and feel good about your proposed business name, the next step will be to search the Canadian corporate names and trademarks database (Nuans).
Corporate Solutions Plus provides small business start-ups and entrepreneurs with affordable, timely and convenient ways to do a preliminary search and reserve your proposed business name. We are a Federal member with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and therefore can offer our clients complete NUANS Name Search Report. Your NUANS report will be required for registering an INCORPORATED business.
Choosing & Reserving Your Business Name
When incorporating a company, a good name is one that reflects your corporate identity/brand, and should be memorable and meaningful.
NUANS (Newly Updated Automated Name Search) is a computerized search system that compares a proposed corporate name or trade-mark with databases of existing corporate bodies, trade-marks, Sole proprietorships and Partnerships. This comparison determines the similarity that exists between the proposed name or mark and existing names in the database, and produces a listing of names that are found to be most similar.
A NUANS Name search is required before incorporation in order to determine if your desired business name is available, and is not confusingly similar to another name or a registered trademark.
When you decide to register your business in Canada, you will be required to submit a corporate name search report to the Federal or provincial government depending on the jurisdiction where you incorporate.
In most cases, if your business name is not available or rejected, you will need to start the process again and pay additional fees. To avoid paying additional fees for a name that may already be registered, you may opt to do a preliminary search, which looks for exact matches only but is generally less expensive. It does not however meet the requirement for incorporation, a full search will need to be conducted after your preliminary search finds that your name is available.
We recommend that you begin with a Preliminary Search which allows you to check up to 3 Business Names and includes the standard NUANS® Pre-Search for coverage of almost all jurisdictions in Canada.
A Nuans name search report provides a list of existing corporate names, business names and trademarks that are similar to the one being proposed. The report is necessary for certain federal and provincial transactions. It is valid for 90 days only.
Order Your NUANS Report
To request a NUANS report and have us contact you for payment details (etransfer) contact us today.
Once we complete your business name search, we can typically get your business registered in 1-2 business days.
A NUANS® report will also reserve your name for 90 days.
We offer 3 FREE pre-searches to help determine if your name is available by querying the Industry Canada database. (Pre-searches are not NUANS® searches). Additional pre-searches are available for a nominal fee.
(Legal terms such as "Inc" "Corp" or "Ltd" should not be included in your search.)
Please note: Orders are typically completed within 2-3 hours during regular business hours (Monday to Friday 9am-4pm). However orders received outside of regular business hours will be processed the next business day. Thank you for your understanding and your patronage!.