Business name registration

If a buyer of assets wants to keep trading under the name customers know, the name may need to be registered in the buyer’s own hands. Registering a name is a provincial filing, so the Act, the registry and the forms depend on where the business operates. The steps after an asset deal are laid out in how to register a business name after an asset purchase.

Ontario

Under Ontario’s Business Names Act, a corporation may not carry on business or identify itself under a name other than its corporate name unless it has registered that name. An individual may not do so under a name other than their own unless registered, and partners must register the firm name, subject to the exceptions in section 2. A corporation, and other persons the regulations prescribe, carrying on business under a registered name must set out both the registered name and its own name in all contracts, invoices, negotiable instruments and orders involving goods or services.

Alberta

Alberta’s registry says there are four types of business names registered under its Partnership Act: trade name, partnership, limited partnership and limited liability partnership. Other provinces have their own regimes.