Our business name and the name of our products or services can become one of the most valuable assets of our company. Such names as SHARP, SONY, FORD and more could cost more than the companies that own them. This is why business name protection is extremely important and must be dealt with at the early stages of the business development. There are various types of levels of business name registration and protection available in Canada. The list provided below moves from the least protective to the most protective types of registration. - Ontario business name registration - Master Business License - Provincial named incorporation - Federal named incorporation - Trademark Every business owner must understand which protection (and lack thereof) each of the registrations provides. Moreover, while corporate name provides for the business name registration, trademark registers product and/or service name, not your business name. Additionally, it must be noted that most registrations (trademark included) are valid only for the province or country of the registration. Therefore, if you plan to develop your business overseas - you must ensure that your trademark is registered there BEFORE you start your operations. BONUS TIP!!! Before registering your company name or applying for a trademark registration - make sure you have purchased all the domain names associated with your proposed name. If you fail to buy domain names before you apply for the registration, someone else will buy the name and will hold it ransom for you to buy it out. This practice will solve you hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Eric, yes and no. You can register a business name as a SP. In Ontario it is called Master Business License. That will provide you with a very minimal protection mostly in a form of proof of date when you started using the name. The only actual protection for the name is a TM. But TM is a more complex and expensive process, so I would apply for it only once my service/product proves itself and becomes a well-known-name.
Hey there - This is super helpful, but I have a question. I wish to name my company a certain word which seems to be trademarked. I would like to start as a sole prop and eventually incorporate as needed. The name I wish to use is similar to "Pineapple", and is a financial services company - However, there is an existing company already named "Pineapple" which sells phone cases - There is zero overlap in customer base or possibility of confusion. Should I just choose a different name right now before registering a sole prop? Am I likely to be unable to use Pineapple even if the trademarked business is in a completely different field?
Dom, thank you for your comment. Generally speaking, you will be able to use the name as long as there is no confusion between the names. The test for confusion is simple - when seeing your busienss name, will I think that this is someone else. I think that financial services and phone covers are too far away to create this type of confusion. You can further improve your position to adding a descriptive term to the name, e.g. Pineapple Financial etc. Please let me know if you need my assistance with the name registration or incorporating your business. Good luck.
Hi there! Thanks for the tips really helpful videos. My question - what exactly does it mean to buy domain names? Buy my website to secure it? how do you buy domain name?
Mel, domain name is the address of your website - www.aaaaa.com - you would like this address to be personalized and correlate with your company's name. The risk is that when you incorporate a named company, there are organizations that search the database and rush to buy out all domain names associated with your company's name. Then they will offer to sell the name to you for huge profit... This is why you should first but your domain and then incorporate. There are multiple providers to buy domain names, I use GoDaddy.com. I hope this clarifies.
Dear Sumaameen, there is no centralized search engine that you can search for domains.. I use the services of GoDaddy, and simply run a search to register the desired domain and see it its available. I would start from a simple Google search of the names you want to register and limit the search to Canada, see if there are organizations that use the name as their domain or company/service/product name. Then proceed to register the domain if you come to a conclusion that your name is unique enough. After you've purchased the domain, you can proceed with the incorporation.
Thank you so much! I have a question - if i want to register for incorporate company but operate in multiple online stores with different products, should i trademark register for each online store? and just use a numbered legal name for the incorpoate?
Katrina, I think that while you are looking into the right direction, your approach should be adjusted just a bit - by selling different products with different names, you do not need to register a separate company or business name for each. Consider Samsung with the huge number of product names it uses. And while you can (but not have to) register a TM for each product, the process if costly ($1,000 if you DIY or $3,000 if you use an agent). In most cases, before your product becomes popular it doesn't really make sense to spend this amount of funds for the registration.... Just continue selling your products and once they "explode" and become "the name" - just before that point you could apply for the TM... I hope this clarifies.... and good luck.
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You are an incredible resource, thank you very much for sharing all these paths and insights. You're awesome man!
Our business name and the name of our products or services can become one of the most valuable assets of our company. Such names as SHARP, SONY, FORD and more could cost more than the companies that own them. This is why business name protection is extremely important and must be dealt with at the early stages of the business development.
There are various types of levels of business name registration and protection available in Canada. The list provided below moves from the least protective to the most protective types of registration.
- Ontario business name registration - Master Business License
- Provincial named incorporation
- Federal named incorporation
- Trademark
Every business owner must understand which protection (and lack thereof) each of the registrations provides. Moreover, while corporate name provides for the business name registration, trademark registers product and/or service name, not your business name.
Additionally, it must be noted that most registrations (trademark included) are valid only for the province or country of the registration. Therefore, if you plan to develop your business overseas - you must ensure that your trademark is registered there BEFORE you start your operations.
BONUS TIP!!!
Before registering your company name or applying for a trademark registration - make sure you have purchased all the domain names associated with your proposed name. If you fail to buy domain names before you apply for the registration, someone else will buy the name and will hold it ransom for you to buy it out. This practice will solve you hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Thank you for these videos!
They're so easy to understand!
Awesome videos very informative! Can you protect your business name if you are planning to open a sole proprietor type of business?
Eric, yes and no. You can register a business name as a SP. In Ontario it is called Master Business License. That will provide you with a very minimal protection mostly in a form of proof of date when you started using the name. The only actual protection for the name is a TM. But TM is a more complex and expensive process, so I would apply for it only once my service/product proves itself and becomes a well-known-name.
@@businessincanada-doitright1822 thank you!
This not related to this topics but need help. How does one return to the registration screen when it times out?
its really great to see this video and very well explained and has helped me a lot.
Hey there - This is super helpful, but I have a question. I wish to name my company a certain word which seems to be trademarked. I would like to start as a sole prop and eventually incorporate as needed. The name I wish to use is similar to "Pineapple", and is a financial services company - However, there is an existing company already named "Pineapple" which sells phone cases - There is zero overlap in customer base or possibility of confusion. Should I just choose a different name right now before registering a sole prop? Am I likely to be unable to use Pineapple even if the trademarked business is in a completely different field?
Dom, thank you for your comment. Generally speaking, you will be able to use the name as long as there is no confusion between the names. The test for confusion is simple - when seeing your busienss name, will I think that this is someone else. I think that financial services and phone covers are too far away to create this type of confusion.
You can further improve your position to adding a descriptive term to the name, e.g. Pineapple Financial etc.
Please let me know if you need my assistance with the name registration or incorporating your business.
Good luck.
Very informative
Hi there! Thanks for the tips really helpful videos. My question - what exactly does it mean to buy domain names? Buy my website to secure it? how do you buy domain name?
Mel, domain name is the address of your website - www.aaaaa.com - you would like this address to be personalized and correlate with your company's name. The risk is that when you incorporate a named company, there are organizations that search the database and rush to buy out all domain names associated with your company's name. Then they will offer to sell the name to you for huge profit... This is why you should first but your domain and then incorporate. There are multiple providers to buy domain names, I use GoDaddy.com. I hope this clarifies.
Thank you so much! Definitely helpful :) appreciate the videos super to the point and all important things to know thanks
Hey,
Unrelated to this, but could you do a video on the stages right after registration? Like, reporting taxes and what not?
Thanks
Hi Sprux. I can and will make such a video.
@@businessincanada-doitright1822 Great. I can't wait!
Excellent video. Plz include link to where we can go to check domain names for our business name? Thanks
Dear Sumaameen, there is no centralized search engine that you can search for domains.. I use the services of GoDaddy, and simply run a search to register the desired domain and see it its available.
I would start from a simple Google search of the names you want to register and limit the search to Canada, see if there are organizations that use the name as their domain or company/service/product name. Then proceed to register the domain if you come to a conclusion that your name is unique enough.
After you've purchased the domain, you can proceed with the incorporation.
Thank you so much! I have a question - if i want to register for incorporate company but operate in multiple online stores with different products, should i trademark register for each online store? and just use a numbered legal name for the incorpoate?
Katrina, I think that while you are looking into the right direction, your approach should be adjusted just a bit - by selling different products with different names, you do not need to register a separate company or business name for each. Consider Samsung with the huge number of product names it uses.
And while you can (but not have to) register a TM for each product, the process if costly ($1,000 if you DIY or $3,000 if you use an agent). In most cases, before your product becomes popular it doesn't really make sense to spend this amount of funds for the registration.... Just continue selling your products and once they "explode" and become "the name" - just before that point you could apply for the TM...
I hope this clarifies.... and good luck.