In order for you to register or incorporate your business, a corporate name search report is required by the Federal and the provincial governments. These reports are used to determine the availability of a corporate/business name by searching the relevant databases or registries listing any similar or possibly confusing existing corporation names, business names and trademarks. In other words, you need to make sure that no one else has already registered the corporate or business name, or trademark you would like to use for your business.

In Canada, there are 2 different kinds of reports: a NUANS* biased report; and a provincial name report. The NUANS database provides name search reports for the following jurisdictions: Canada (Federal); Ontario; Alberta; New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; and Prince Edward Island. For more information about NUANS, click here. For all the other provinces (B.C., Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland & Labrador), they each require a name search report from their respective provincial database and registry and NOT from the NUANS database.

CorporationCentre.ca offers you the ability to obtain corporate name search reports for all jurisdictions in Canada. Please note the respective time-frame when making your decision.

* Please be advised that the current government delay to obtain a name decision for Saskatchewan is approximately 15 business days. This delay is in addition to the processing times for incorporations and business name registrations.

It is an advanced search system that searches corporate and business registries across Canada, with over 8,000,000 records of corporation names, business names and trademarks.

In order for you to register or incorporate your business, a "NUANS Report" is required by the Federal & most provincial governments. This NUANS Report is used to determine the availability of a corporate/business name by searching the NUANS database and listing any similar or possibly confusing existing corporation names, business names and trademarks. In other words, you need to make sure that no one else has already registered the corporate or business name, or trademark you would like to use for your business.

NUANS reports are valid for 90 days from their date of submission. There are different types of NUANS reports, geared towards different jurisdictions (i.e. provinces) or Canada. NUANS reports for incorporations must be for the relevant jurisdiction (Federal or desired province) and must be a "reservation" type report.

To avoid performing repeated NUANS reports (which can be expensive), a "pre-search" of the NUANS database is available. CorporationCentre.ca offers NUANS pre-searches. For more information on this NUANS pre-searches, please click here.