How to protect a business name in canada [Explained]



Last updated : Aug 3, 2022
Written by : Domenic Derhammer
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How to protect a business name in canada

How do I secure my company name in Canada?

To register your trade name, go to the registry of the jurisdiction(s) where you plan to do business. In Newfoundland and Labrador there is no registration of trade names. Registration is only required for corporations and cooperatives.

What is the best way to protect your business name?

Trademark. A trademark can protect the name of your business, goods, and services at a national level. Trademarks prevent others in the same (or similar) industry in the United States from using your trademarked names.

How do you protect a brand name legally?

Trademark Your Business Name The most effective way to protect a business name is to register it as a trade mark. A trade mark gives you exclusive legal rights to use your business name in relation to your goods or services or closely related goods and services.

How much does it cost to copyright a business name in Canada?

Official Fees There is a trademark application filing fee of $335.93 CAD for the first class of goods and services in your Canadian trademark application. For each class of goods and services beyond the first, there is a further cost of $101.80 CAD per class payable when filing your application.

What is the difference between copyright and trademark in Canada?

A trademark is a word (or words), a design or a combination of these used to identify the goods or services of a person or organization. Copyright is the exclusive right to copy a creative work or allow someone else to do so and applies to all original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.

Can two businesses have the same name in Canada?

Generally, all businesses operating in Canada must comply with federal, provincial, and municipal laws regarding business names. In practice, what this means is that two businesses may very well have the same name.

Can I stop someone from using my business name?

A trademark is the only way to prevent others from using the name and gives you legal recourse should someone attempt to use it.

How do I make sure no one else uses my business name?

Trademark a Business Name You acquire a trademark in a business name by simply using it, but you can obtain much stronger protection by registering your name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Should I trademark or copyright my business name?

A trademark can protect your name and logo in case someone else wants to use them for their own purposes. Also, you cannot really copyright a name, since copyright protects artistic works. This is exactly why you need to have a trademark that protects your company's intellectual property, such as your logo.

How can I legally protect my business idea?

  1. Register your intellectual property (IP) portfolio.
  2. Monitor for infringements of your protected business ideas.
  3. Enforce IP ownership and take down infringements.
  4. Employ a brand protection software.

How do I protect my startup ideas?

  1. Talk to a lawyer and get your documents in order. Have a lawyer go over your idea to determine which aspects of it can be copyrighted, trademarked or patented.
  2. Be discerning about the people you work with.
  3. Invest in ideas that are difficult to copy.

Can someone trademark my business name?

The short answer is—in theory, yes, but in reality, no. If you don't have a trademark on your name, someone else can research the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database and find an available name. They can then trademark it.

Do I need to trademark my business name Canada?

Even if your company name or your business name is registered federally (Corporations Canada), provincially or territorially, it is recommended to also obtain trademark registration to better protect your brand.

What is the difference between copyright and trademark?

Copyright protects original work, whereas a trademark protects items that distinguish or identify a particular business from another. Copyright is generated automatically upon the creation of original work, whereas a trademark is established through common use of a mark in the course of business.

How long does a trademark last in Canada?

When you register your trademark, you get the sole right to use the mark across Canada for 10 years. You can renew your trademark every 10 years after that. A registered trademark is one that has been entered in the Register of Trademarks.

Should I trademark or copyright my logo?

How to legally protect your logo design. To protect your logo, you need a trademark or service mark (trademarks are generally used for products, while service marks are usually applied to services). You should not copyright or patent a logo design.

What can you not trademark?

  • Proper names or likenesses without consent from the person.
  • Generic terms, phrases, or the like.
  • Government symbols or insignia.
  • Vulgar or disparaging words or phrases.
  • The likeness of a U.S. President, former or current.
  • Immoral, deceptive, or scandalous words or symbols.
  • Sounds or short motifs.

How do I trademark a word in Canada?

In Canada, a trade-mark is registered by filing an application with the trade-marks Office together with a non-refundable fee of $336.6 for each trade-mark applied for. It is possible to file an application for registration of a trade-mark that is not yet in use somewhere in Canada.

Can a company sue you for having the same name?

Trademark Registration Then, the owner can face a lawsuit for using the same name as someone else even if the second party registered a trademark for the company after the first owner created the company. These situations usually require the services of a lawyer to both understand and pursue.

How do I find out if a business name is taken in Canada?

  1. Search the Internet. The easiest way to check if someone else is already using your proposed name is to search the Web.
  2. Search national name databases.
  3. Check trade names in other provinces and territories.


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How to protect a business name in canada


Comment by Evelyne Muchmore

hi everybody welcome back it's me again Eugene from Canadian business and Enterprise Services and today we would like to discuss another topic of great interest and some confusion to our clients and that is the business name protection available in Canada in general to protect your business you have to make a proper registration and ensure that your competitors or other people do not use the name which is exactly like yours were too similar to confuse people to believe they're dealing with you when they deal with someone else in general there different levels of name protection some of them gives you certain protection others don't that's what we'll discuss today I'll show you what to do and how to do it right and at the end of this video I also provide you a very small advice that hopefully will save you a lot of money in the future and will give you an opportunity to start your business in the most efficient straightforward way without paying unnecessary fees so first level of protection that we've discussed already is master business license technically no protection whatsoever the only thing that it gives you is the registration of your name with the provincial registrated body and allowing you to operate on the different names and you're initially registered corporate name or your personal name it does not prevent anyone else from registering the same name for their businesses their services their products their shop stores it will not give you any certain tools to stop others from doing that second level of registration and minimal protection is the provincial corporation named registration where you register your name as a part of incorporation at that stage no one else in the province of Ontario will be able to register the name with the same company with the same name or confusingly similar name but that will not prevent your competitors from using your name once it becomes a famous and known to call their products their services their stores in many situations you won't be able directly to stop them from doing that third level is the federal corporation with the name registration which provides you similar to province but across Canada protection which means no-one across Canada be able to register company with the same or confusing the similar name but again that will not stop other people from doing business operating calling their product stores under the same name and in order to protect your assets you will have to really go to the courts fight proof spend a lot of money to stop it the on the actual way and the only efficient way to protect your name is a trademark registration and trademark provides you with proper registration and protection of your business product or service name and prevents others from using the same a confusingly similar name with regards to similar products or services as yours technically your your competitors will not be able to steal your name and use it for their own benefit trademark is more expensive more complicated more demanding procedure which I advise everyone to use a proper consultant or advisor who will do it for you either lawyer or trademark registration agent but once you see that your business starts growing starts creating creating certain awareness and knowledge of people on the market you have to think consider and start to register a trademark to protect your name one additional comment is that trademark registration limited to any one country where it's registered which which means that if you plan to develop and grow your business internationally you have to plan and register your trade trademark trade name in all those countries where you want to start operating now to the little advice that I promised at the beginning of this video and that is when you approach registration name registration of a company from any angle either incorporation under name trademark application or master business license before you do that very important run and by any possible the main names under the same name that want to register there are lots of people in Canada and around the globe that have engines searches that will identify corporate name registration register that the name the main name under the same name and then will try to sell it to you for 10 20 50 thousand times more expensive than just to buy the main directly from the domain registration agencies so before you run to register your company and a certain name by yourself at the main website name www your name dot c-- a.com dotnet because otherwise you will have to deal with resellers with explicitly higher prices to do to technically have your name on the internet so thank you for watching leave your comments in the section below ask your questions as I already advised personal to the email general in the comments below if you like like us and I hope to see you soon with future topics will discuss about Canadian business thank you for watching


Thanks for your comment Evelyne Muchmore, have a nice day.
- Domenic Derhammer, Staff Member


Comment by telovnikC

let's talk about protect 101 one of the five seminars in our smart small business series we call it protect 101 and specifically build it then protect it and what we mean by that is quite literally you're building your business you need to protect it let me just give you some general understanding of what we call intellectual property and how the world works out there and then we'll get specific about your business intellectual property is the sum of an organization's ideas inventions technologies brands general knowledge software processes all of these things that can be converted into profit and those words that you just heard are basically how CRA defines intellectual property believe it or not there are intellectual property consultants lawyers and other advisers all focused just on intellectual property it's often the heart of the value of these large businesses what they have created well we think it's the same thing for small businesses you certainly don't have to spend the same time and money at it but it is important that you protect what is most critical to your business the bottom line is you're doing these things to build your business or you will be and protecting certain things is very important let's get specific let's start with your business name probably the first thing that you came up with and even if you have registered that name which we certainly encourage you to do and regardless of the kind of structure you've chosen a sole proprietorship or partnership a corporation that name is not protected let me give you another definition straight from the office of until actual property the granting of names under the Business Corporations Act does not protect you from earlier or subsequent trademarks of other parties so what they're really saying is when you register a business name someone else may already be in the process of trademarking it in fact it may already be trademarked and yet you can still register your business similarly when you're registering your business name we would absolutely suggest you do a search to make sure that it's not in trade mart what else is important to protect well trademarks are identifiable things like a logo your business name a tagline the names of your products and services these are all things that will be on brochures on the web it'll be everywhere for you and unfortunately just like the business name example I gave you unless you trademark these things they won't be yours from a legal perspective someone else can trade mark them and have you legally stop using them in the seminar protect 101 we go well beyond trademarks we talk about copyrights which refer more two bodies of work it often is referred to when we think of recordings or literary works books but it also applies to manuals it can apply to your website so in the seminar what we'll do is will not only help you understand what is important to protect and what it costs to protect but will also help you to choose those names or to do searches and investigate and understand which names might be most effective so it's a body of knowledge that we're going to share with you we have not protected it we want to make it available to you and we think it's an important part of starting and growing a small business see you there you


Thanks telovnikC your participation is very much appreciated
- Domenic Derhammer


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