Intellectual Property: Is Your Business Name Adequately Protected?

There are three types of name registrations – trade names, corporate names and trademarks – each of which has a different level of protection. If protecting your name is important to you, you should carefully consider which registration is best suited to your needs.

Trade Name

Trade names are names used by individuals or corporations that are different from their legal names. There are no rules or guidelines to follow in choosing a trade name, but if you use a trade name in your business, it must be registered. Registration of a trade name, while a simple and inexpensive process, offers very little protection. As holder of a trade name, you do not have an ownership interest in the name. As no name search is required prior to registering a trade name, there are numerous duplicate trade name registrations that have no legislated protection. As a result, defending the right to use your trade name is difficult and often impossible. This type of registration provides the lowest level of protection and should be considered only in situations where the name is not significant to your business.

Corporate Name

If you are going to incorporate your business, you must obtain a name search report listing names similar to the name you are proposing to use for your corporation. You must review the report and satisfy yourself that your corporate name is sufficiently different from other corporate names. As is the case with trade names, corporate names enjoy very little protection, and corporations do not have an ownership interest in their names. Should a conflict arise, the Registrar of Corporations in Alberta has authority to review the evidence and order a change of name if deemed necessary. As it is difficult to convince the Registrar that there is a conflict, these applications are often unsuccessful. Although corporate names offer a slightly higher level of protection than trade names, the protection is weak and difficult to enforce.

Trademark

A trademark is a word, name, symbol, logo or any combination of these, which is adapted and used to identify goods and services and to distinguish them from the goods and services of others. Prior to becoming registered, a trademark must comply with the requirements of the Trademarks Act. Once you register your trademark, you are the owner of that trademark. You have the exclusive right to use the trademark throughout Canada in connection with the goods and services for which the trademark is registered. Trademark registration is the highest level of protection available in Canada and it is highly recommended if name protection is of value to your business.

If you are interested in discussing the registration best suited to your business, please contact your lawyer at Bennett Jones LLP.