In Canada the governments in all of the provinces and territories require some form of name search report prior to incorporating a company and in many Canadian jurisdictions before you register a business name, partnership or sole proprietorship.

Prior to obtaining a Nuans name search report or similar name search, a person who wishes to register a company, partnership, business name or sole proprietorship in Canada will sometimes do a preliminary name search. The preliminary name search weeds out all or most of the similarities to the proposed name. Less money will be wasted if you have this done.

The government reviews the full name search report to ensure there are no conflicts before it allows you to register your business. Some Canadian jurisdictions such as the federal jurisdiction will reject a name even if it sounds like another name and is spelled differently.

As part of the service of a search house, it is normal practice for the search house to do a preliminary name search as part of the service of ordering the full Nuans name search. It is important that you know in advance of ordering your name search that the preliminary name search is part of the service. If you do not require a name search to register as would be the case in some territories or provinces for partnerships, business names or sole proprietorships then you would need to pay separately for a preliminary name search. I will explain this further below.

Having a Nuans name search in hand does not mean your name is going to be accepted. You should never receive a full Nuans name search report or similar name search without first having a preliminary name search performed. If the search house says this is not part of its service then you should look for another one. Any search house can order a Nuans name search but a qualified search house will pre-check the name for you to make sure you have a better chance of having your name accepted by the particular Canadian government without charging you an additional fee.

Look at it this way. A person wants to register a business called Morgan Cement Services Incorporated. The search company tells the person that there is no exact match because they do not have a policy of pre-checking names. There is actually a company registered called Morgan Cement Services Ltd. This person decides to register his business called Morgan Cement Services Incorporated and the owner of Morgan Cement Services Ltd. sees his flyers in the neighbourhood. Mr. Morgan of Morgan Cement Services Ltd. has had his business for many years and has built up a great reputation. Mr. Morgans reputation and longevity in the business gives him the ability to go court and request the court to get this person to change the name of his corporation. If you consider it, it would not be in your best interest either to have a name that is similar to another registered name.

The search house will provide the Nuans name search report or similar name search report to you by email and you should take some time to review the report to ensure for yourself that the name you wish to use is not too similar to another name already registered.

A Name search would be accepted for registering a company in Ontario even if the names are almost 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. Actually the corporate governments in Ontario and Alberta allow for business names to be registered that are exactly alike.

In these cases it is a good idea 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, however, if you have any concerns about that just write them and ask them what the policy is before you purchase.