How Do I Trademark My Business Name in Canada?

Before you start: a business name registration is not a trademark

A trademark is legally defined as a sign, or combination of signs, used to distinguish one business’s goods or services from another’s (Trademarks Act, RSC 1985, c T-13, s 2). That definition matters because it is easy to assume that registering your business name somewhere else already covers this. It does not.

In Ontario, registering a name under the Business Names Act does not protect the exclusivity of that name; the province’s own guidance points registrants toward federal trademark registration if they want that protection. In Alberta, the registry will let you register a business name that is identical or similar to an existing trademark, since there is no screening bar, but doing so can expose you to a lawsuit and damages from the trademark’s owner. Trademark law itself is entirely federal: it is the same Trademarks Act and the same Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) process whether your business is in Toronto or Calgary.

Step 1: Search the Canadian Trademarks Database

Before filing, CIPO recommends searching the Canadian Trademarks Database to check whether your proposed name could be confused with an existing registered or pending trademark. This is not a formality: a name that is too close to someone else’s can be refused at examination or opposed later, after you have already invested in the application.

Step 2: Check whether your name would cause “confusion”

The statutory test CIPO applies, and that a competitor could later raise in opposition, asks whether use of both trademarks in the same area would likely lead the public to infer that the goods or services come from the same source (Trademarks Act, s 6(2)). This is the central legal hurdle for most business-name applications, more so than any list of banned words.

Step 3: File your application with CIPO

Applications are filed through CIPO’s online e-Filing service. You (or a licensed trademark agent acting for you) submit the application and pay the application fee; CIPO issues an application number as soon as the fee clears (Trademarks Act, s 33; Trademarks Regulations, SOR/2018-227). CIPO’s fees are adjusted periodically under the Service Fees Act, including a 2.7% increase that took effect January 1, 2026, so check CIPO’s current fee schedule directly rather than relying on a figure from an older source.

Step 4: CIPO examination

An examiner reviews the application against the Act, including the confusion test above and other grounds for refusal. This stage can result in an objection letter requiring a response, or straightforward approval, before the application can move forward.

Step 5: Advertisement and the two-month opposition window

If CIPO approves the application, it is published in the Trademarks Journal. From the date of that advertisement, third parties have two months to formally oppose the registration (Trademarks Act, ss 37 to 38). An opposition is a proceeding, not an automatic refusal, but it adds time and cost if someone challenges the mark.

Step 6: Registration and the certificate

If no one opposes the application, or an opposition is rejected, the application proceeds to registration. CIPO issues a certificate of registration and enters the mark in the Register of Trademarks (Trademarks Act, s 40). At this point the mark has federal, national protection, effective identically in Ontario, Alberta, and every other province.

Step 7: Keep the trademark alive - use and renewal

Registration is on the Register for an initial 10-year period and can be renewed for further 10-year periods indefinitely, as long as the prescribed renewal fee is paid on time (Trademarks Act, s 46(1)). Registration is not permanent protection regardless of what you do afterward: a registration can be expunged if the mark loses its distinctiveness, is abandoned, or is not used in Canada. Ongoing, actual use of the mark is what keeps the right alive, not the certificate itself.

There is no legal requirement to mark a registered trademark with ® or any other symbol, though many owners do so voluntarily to signal registered status.