Business Name Registration in Ontario

When registration is required

Under Ontario’s Business Names Act, a business name must be registered where:

• A sole proprietor carries on business under any name other than their own full legal name
• A general partnership carries on business under a name other than the partners’ names
• A corporation carries on business under a name other than its exact corporate name, an operating or trade name
• A limited partnership or limited liability partnership operates in Ontario

Registrations are made through the Ontario Business Registry and are valid for five years, after which they must be renewed. Lapsed registrations are extremely common and are usually discovered at the worst possible moment, during a financing, a sale, or a bank account review.

Registration is not ownership

This is the point that costs businesses real money. The Ontario registry does not check whether your name conflicts with an existing one. Two businesses can hold identical registrations, and the registry will not tell either of them.

Registration gives you the right to use a name for regulatory purposes. It gives you no exclusive right, no protection against someone else adopting it, and no defence if you have chosen a name that infringes an existing trademark.

Actual protection comes from trademark rights, either a registered trademark under the federal Trademarks Act, giving exclusive rights across Canada, or common law rights built through use in a particular geographic market. If the name matters to the business, search it properly before investing in signage, packaging, and a domain, and consider registering it.

Choosing a name that will hold

• Search the Ontario Business Registry, the federal corporate database, and the Canadian Trademarks Database before committing
• Check domain and social handle availability at the same time; discovering the domain is taken after the signage is printed is a familiar and avoidable expense
• Avoid purely descriptive names; they are weak as trademarks and hard to defend
• Avoid names suggesting a connection to government, or requiring regulatory approval, without checking
• Remember that a registered business name does not create a separate legal entity, a sole proprietor operating under a registered name remains personally liable for everything