A Trade Name is a business name registration under a corporation. Since the the owner of a trade name is a corporation, the trade name technically gets all the benefits of a corporation unlike a sole proprietorship. A corporation may register a trade name to operate its entire business or a certain department under a different operating name other than its legal name. These trade names are also commonly known as Operating Name or Doing Business As (DBA), or a Fictitious Name, or an Assumed Name.

Trade Name in Ontario

The previous name of this product was Ontario Master Business Licence (MBL). It is also known as business name registration in Ontario. A trade name in Ontraio must be owned by a single corporation and not a person. When this type of business entity is owned by a person, in Ontraio, it's called Sole Proprietorship

Trade Name in Other Province

In most provinces, this is also known as business name registration under a corporation. In Alberta, a sole proprietorship and a trade name registration is done in the same form. To register a trade name under a corporation, the corporation must be registered in the designated province. Trade name can be registered only provincially.

What are the advantages of a trade name:

Besides, shortening the name or hiding the legal name, trade name has some other advantages:

1. they’re easy and inexpensive to set up
2. Gives your business more credibility
3. helps differentiate brands if you have a variety of products
4. allows you to open separate bank accounts for separate department or product of your corporation
5. the initial path of trade mark.

What are the disadvantages of a trade name:

The main disadvantage of trade name is the lack of protection of the name:

1. No exclusive rights to the name unless you register for a trademark
2. The owning corporation of the trade name must be registered in the designated province
3. Can be registered provincially only (federal government does not offer it)