You might be thinking to yourself, “Why do I need to do a NUANS pre-search Report? and have to spend the extra money to pay for a pre-search report? Can’t I just register my business ahead and skip the fees and hassle?” Let us help to explain the benefits of getting a NUANS pre-search Canada further in this blog and read along to find out
Whether you are opening a corporation, partnership or even sole proprietorship, There are many benefits to doing a NUANS Preliminary Search before registering the business. Conducting a NUANS pre-search Canada is a good first step. You can then look at existing corporations and trademarks registered in Canada NUANS databank. You can also find existing business and trademarks that are similar in name to your proposed new business name. This will help you to make an informed decisions and gives you opportunity to make changes to the name to avoid conflict with other existing business names. NUANS pre-search Report free your business name from potential conflicts.
Now, you may ask again, “What if I don’t really care about using a unique name for my business? or I don’t need to protect my business name. Do I really still need to do a NUANS pre-search Report?” . Well, in that case, it is still a wise idea to do a NUANS Preliminary Search Canada. This is because in Canada, corporations and trademarks have name protection which prevents other business from using their protected name. This could potentially cause problems when registering your business and legal issues due to infringement in the future. So you can avoid these issues by doing a simple NUANS pre-search “Free-Ing you from potential conflict”. This is a small cost to pay, for peace of mind!
Why do I need to do a NUANS Preliminary Search ?
Here are a lists of reasons on why you might want to consider doing a NUANS pre-search:
1. Avoid Customer Confusion
Customers can easily confuse your business with another similarly named business. This may cause issues for you such as getting a bad reputation. Let’s say, your name is similar to a business that has somehow developed a bad reputation either online or by word of mouth. This would chase away potential customers and end up losing you money.
Other than potentially getting a bad reputation, another problem is that money spent on advertising could be wasted. This is because customers who see the advertisement might think that they are the same. Then they ended up purchasing from the other business, while you have paid the advertising fees without reaping the benefits. So you definitely want to make sure that your business name is distinctive enough from others before registering it. The NUANS pre-search can make you aware of any potential name conflicts, so you can make changes and avoid customer confusion. Furthermore, NUANS pre-search Free-s up your workload and stop playing the guessing game to avoid name confusion.
2. Avoid Infringing on Protected names
Corporations and trademarks in Canada have name protection that legally prevent other business from using their name. Master business licences such as sole proprietorship or partnerships do not have name protection. However, even if you are just registering a master business licenses, to avoid potential legal issues and infringing on an existing business’s protected name, you would want to get a NUANS pre-search before registering.
3. Avoid wasting money and time
Canada requires corporations to do a NUANS reservation report before registering their company. This is because name protection exists for corporation names in the jurisdiction that they are operating from. This means that if your corporation name is the same as another protected business name in that jurisdiction, then you would need to change your name. The NUANS report will reserve the proposed business name for 90 days. A new business owner would then submit this document along with their articles of incorporation when registering their new business.
If the purchased NUANS reservation report showed that the name is conflicting with other existing business name, then a new report would need to be ordered. This would cost you money and time in the process of registering your business. So to prevent this, you should do a pre-search prior to ordering a NUANS report to reserve the name. The pre-search is available at a lower cost compare to the NUANS reservation report. This can help you to decide the best name and avoid double work and fees before ordering a NUANS report.
Hope this article helps to clear up your questions and help you make informed decisions on your purchases before opening your new company. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us and we will help you as best as we can!