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Nuans Report VS Name Pre-approval

Nuans report is the pre-requisite of name pre-approval for certain jurisdictions such as Federal, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Prince Edwards Island. A name pre-approval is considered after Nuans report is submitted to these jurisdictions. On the other hand, other jurisdictions such as BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Yukon and Northwest Territories, provide a name pre-approval without the need of submitting a Nuans report. For these jurisdictions, you do not need to submit a Nuans report, rather all you need to do is apply for name pre-approval directly. If a Nuans report is required to do the name pre-approval job, they will obtain it by their own. Therefore, it can be concluded, a name pre-approval is kind of guarantee that you gonna get the name if you utilize it before the expiry date; while a Nuans report does not give gurantee of name pre-approval, rather it is just a proposed name and reserved by you for 90 days in order to consider for name pre-approval purpose.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a NUANS Report?
NUANS Reports are used to determine the availability of a corporate/business name. In order for you to register or incorporate your business, a NUANS Report is required by the Federal & most provincial governments.

How long a Nuans report valid for?
It is valid for 90 days. If the 90-day period has ended, you must order a new Nuans report to submit.

What is a Name Pre-Search?
Name pre-search is a kind of name pre-checking process before obtaining a Nuans report. Pre-searches save you time and money by eliminating proposed names with exact matches before you pay for a Nuans report. Let’s explain a bit more. A Nuans report having exact conflict or partially conflict with an existing name, won’t work. In such case, again a new report required with an alternative name. This process will continue until you get a successful name that is free from conflict. The process costs money and time. To avoid this problem, government has introduced the pre-search system in the name database. Therefore, we may conclude that, conducting a pre-search determines whether the Nuans report gonna work or not.

I have/need a domain name. Do I still need Nuans search?
Yes, you still need a Nuans report. Web domain searches determine whether a certain url is available or not. Many companies are active in Canada without a website. Moreover, domain name registration is under a different authority while business name registration is under Industry Canada and provincial corporate registries. Your business domain name can be different than your registered business name. Reserving a domain name, does not give any guarantee that such a business name will be approved by government. Therefore, ideally speaking, reserving a domain name is the next process after getting a business name approved. In our agency, you may order a Nuans report and domain together, so we can do these both works together to avoid miss-match of each of them.

I already did a google search. Do I still need a NUANS Report?
Yes. A google search is a general web search and only shows part of Canadian registered business who have online presence. A google search result does not represent a comprehensive search result from Canadian government’s corporate name database. Moreover, a NUANS search report has many other elements that are necessary to determine the name result, whereas a google search doesn’t have those elements.

What is the distinctive element in a company name?
The distinctive element of a corporate name is the element of a name that sets you apart from other similar businesses (e.g. Starbucks Coffee Shop). “Coffee Shop” does not distinguish itself in any way from other businesses in that industry, whereas “Starbucks” does and is considered the distinctive element. Made-up words are acceptable as distinctive elements, provided they do not conflict with others already registered.

What is the descriptive element in a company name?
The descriptive element of a corporate name is the part of the name that indicates the nature of the business of the company (e.g. Starbuck Coffee Shop). The descriptive element can be specific such as “Coffee Shop”, or it can be more general, such as “Enterprises”.