Frequently Asked Questions

What is NUANS?

NUANS is a computerized search system that compares a proposed corporate name or Trade-mark with databases of existing corporate bodies and Trade-marks. This comparison determines the similarity that exists between the proposed name or mark and existing names in the database, and produces a listing of names that are found to be most similar.

NUANS is a registered Trade-mark of the government of Canada. The software and the data is the property of Industry Canada. The NUANS goals include:

  • Quality - Cite all names that conflict with the proposed name in a concise, easily readable report format;
  • Economy - Minimize the time and effort required by searching staff in performing the name check function and optimize the use of computer resources required in a name search;
  • Consistency - Produce reports, upon which name granting decisions can be made, that are of equal high quality for all names searched without the dangers of human subjectivity;
  • Flexibility - Be flexible enough to accommodate the various differences between jurisdictions in legislation concerning the name checking and name granting process. NUANS is currently in use in jurisdictions where name searching is totally privatized, partially privatized or still totally under control of the corporate administrator.

The NUANS approach is to automate the name searching function by having a program with enough "intelligence" to consider all possible criteria for confusion between proposed and existing names. In simple terms, NUANS is a large computer program which provides a complete search, regardless of the name formulation. There are certain programs which perform the phonetic searching, and others do more direct searching dependent on the length of the words. There is a NUANS Dictionary which is composed of descriptive words, a synonym table, and other features to allow a user to enter additional name spellings when inputting a name to be searched.

 

How Do I Contact the NUANS Help Centre?

The NUANS Help Centre has a toll free number for supporting all of its NUANS product offerings. Office hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.

The NUANS Members support line is toll free 1 888 81-NUANS or 1 888 816-8267.

You may also contact by e-mail at NUANSOperations@hp.com.

 

How Do I Get a NUANS Report?

To get a NUANS report, you have the option of ordering your own NUANS report in real-time from the NUANS Self-Serve Web site for federal incorporations, or, with the assistance of a NUANS Registered Member of your choice, to incorporate federally and to incorporate in other jurisdictions.

The NUANS Self-Serve Web site

The NUANS Self-Serve Web site is only available to incorporate in specific jurisdictions, for example: Federal and Northwest Territories. To incorporate in other jurisdictions you will need to go through a NUANS Registered Member.

The NUANS Self-Serve Web site will provide you with a six-page NUANS search report listing the 68 most similar existing corporate names to your proposed name.

Ordering your NUANS name search report this way will require that you enter information from a set of input fields, and that associated help files be read to successfully process your NUANS report. Comprehensive help files with examples are available to assist you in the production of an acceptable NUANS report.

Order your NUANS Name Search Report from the NUANS Self-Serve Web site.

Ordering your NUANS Name Search Report from a NUANS Registered Member

You may elect to order your NUANS name search report with the assistance of a NUANS Registered Member. If you elect to order your NUANS report this way, the NUANS Members will provide you with professional assistance, which may include advice, recommendations and other related services. The NUANS Members will also have the ability to provide you with NUANS report types of other jurisdictions including Trade-mark reports. Report prices and method of payment will vary from NUANS Member to NUANS Member.

View the list of NUANS Registered Members.

 

How Do I Become a NUANS Member?

Please visit our Subscriber Kit page for details on becoming a NUANS member.

 

Criteria for NUANS Members Providing Online NUANS Services

The "NUANS Members Providing Online NUANS Services" link provides to the business community the ability to view and select NUANS registered members providing online NUANS services. Only NUANS members providing the capability of ordering a NUANS report online are listed in this file.

The following is the criteria outlined by Industry Canada, which identifies the conditions that must be met in order for a NUANS registered member to be listed:

  1. The NUANS registered member must be equipped with a web site.
  2. The NUANS member's web site must be user friendly and easy to navigate.
  3. The business community must be able to request a NUANS name search report from the NUANS registered member's web site.
  4. The business community must be clear on all or any NUANS services and costs associated in requesting a NUANS name search report.
  5. The business community must be able to receive their completed NUANS report via the Internet, e-mail or by regular mail.

If a NUANS member believes it meets the criteria outlined by Industry Canada,  it may contact the NUANS Help Centre and request that its Web site be considered, at which point a review of their Web site by Industry Canada will be performed. If the site meets the set criteria, the site will be approved and added to the list of NUANS registered members providing online NUANS services.

Should you have any questions or comments, please contact the NUANS Help Centre toll free at 1 888 816-8267 or 1 888 81-NUANS or you can e-mail us at: NUANSOperations@hp.com

 

What Products and Services Does the NUANS Offer?

NUANS offers several product offerings to assist both the corporate and Trade-mark communities for searching. The products offered are:

NUANS Reports

An Automated search report for searching both corporate names and Trade-marks.

NUANS Preliminary Search
Copy of the entire Canadian NUANS database including Trade-marks.
NUANS Surveillance
A weekly surveillance report for the Trade-mark applications.
The NUANS Surveillance report is a tool used by Trade-mark agents to determine whether a newly advertised mark is in conflict with one of their clients’ marks.
Every week the government publishes a journal, which includes all marks being advertised for that week (this represents 300 to 500 marks). Currently, the surveillance method used by most Trade-mark agents, is to manually review the journal and to instruct their clients of any possible infringements.
A Trade-mark firm, which is responsible for several thousand marks, may not be aware of all of the marks they represent. This is the reason for producing the NUANS Surveillance report. The NUANS system searches all of the advertised word marks against the entire NUANS search base and then produces a report which only reveals the conflicting marks for a given Trade-mark firm, using the agent(s)' number(s). All Trade-mark agents are provided with an agent number. In the case of larger law firms, they may have one main number for the firm, but may also have several other numbers for individual lawyers.
 

What is the Price Schedule of NUANS Products and Services?

Report Pricing

NUANS Reports

Price

A) Regular NUANS Reports

$14.49

B) Expedited NUANS Reports

$21.47

Minimum Monthly Administrative Charge

$104.86

This is a transaction-based service, providing reports based upon name search queries. The price quoted is per transaction. In order to access this service, the NUANS client must first establish a contractual relationship with the service provider. Usage is captured, reported and invoiced monthly. The greater of either the monthly search usage or the minimum monthly administrative charge will apply to each account per month.

NOTE: the client subscription fee applies to this service.

NUANS Database Preliminary Search System

Preliminary Search Pricing

NUANS preliminary search

each search

Price

$0.23 ea.

This online database service is optional. It is a copy of the entire Canadian NUANS search base and Canadian Trade-marks. It is a very useful tool for prescreening, and for responding to general inquiries from customers.

NOTE: The minimum monthly administrative charge applies to this service.

Account Pricing

Client Subscription Fee

$125.00

This one-time fee covers the initial setup of your NUANS account and is invoiced upon commencement of your NUANS service contract.

Account Re-activation Fee

Account Re-activation

$78.64

This fee covers the cost of re-activating service to a suspended NUANS account.

NUANS Member Training Course

NUANS provides the following three methods of delivering the NUANS Training Course, which is made available to all NUANS Members upon request:

  • Onsite Training
  • Virtual Training
  • Self Paced Training

Onsite Training
This training method consists of having an instructor travel to your location for an onsite training session. The price is either based on a fixed rate of $2,000.00 plus all of the instructor’s travel costs, or alternatively a per student rate of $495.00 with a minimum requirement of 6 students attending the training session. The instructor’s travel cost is included in this price.

Virtual Training
Virtual Training consists of remotely accessing the NUANS Training Course through the Internet and conferencing by telephone to a communication bridge, enabling the student to simultaneously listen to the presentation. Presentation slides are made available through the Internet, while the instructor and the student actively communicate by telephone. Students can ask questions and make comments while following the slide presentation on the Internet.
The fixed rate for this service is $1,400.00, and a per student rate consists of $235.00, with a minimum requirement of 6 students registered to the virtual training session.

Self Paced Training
The self paced training course, also known as the NUANS Training Course, is accessible through your NUANS Member account directly from the NUANS Web site.
Once Members access the NUANS training course, they can complete the course at their own pace. A certificate of completion is provided at the end of the course. To access the training course click on “Training Course” from the NUANS Members’ Main Page. There is no cost for this method.

These three methods of providing the NUANS Training Course is intended to assist both current and newer Members, in developing a more thorough understanding of the NUANS System. More specifically, it is designed to assist Members in learning how to correctly submit queries to the NUANS System, and offers information on how to properly search names in the NUANS Preliminary Search System.

Surveillance Services

Trade-mark Surveillance Pricing

Surveillance Report Application

Weekly Surveillance Report Charge

$18.26

Per Hit Citation Charge

$0.14

The NUANS Surveillance reports are tools used by Trade-mark agents to determine whether a newly advertised mark is in conflict with one of their clients' marks.

Every week the government publishes a journal that includes all marks being advertised for that week (this represents 300 to 800 marks). Currently, the surveillance method used by most Trade-mark agents is to manually review the journal and instruct their clients of any possible infringements.

A Trade-mark firm, which is responsible for several thousand marks, may not be aware of all of the marks they represent. This is the reason for producing the NUANS Surveillance report. The NUANS system searches all of the advertised word marks against the entire NUANS search base, and then produces a report, which only reveals the conflicts for a given Trade-mark firm, using the number(s) belonging to the agent(s). All Trade-mark agents are provided with an agent number. In the case of larger law firms, they may have one main number for the firm, but may also have several other numbers for individual lawyers.

Retrieval of Old NUANS Reports

Members can retrieve a copy of their reports from the "NUANS Recoverable Reports" menu at their leisure. Reports are available for a period of up to one hundred and eighty (180) days. Deleted NUANS reports older than one hundred and eighty (180) days and up to seven (7) years can be recovered from the NUANS Recoverable Archived Reports utility at a cost of one regularly priced report. Industry Canada’s policy on retention of electronic documents is seven (7) years. It is therefore strongly recommend that you save a copy of your NUANS reports on CD, DVD, hard drive, or network drive.

 

What Types of NUANS Reports are Available?

The following report options are available to all NUANS Members.

  • Federal Corporate Name report plus Trade-mark report
  • Ontario Corporate Name report plus Trade-mark report
  • Alberta Business Name report plus Trade-mark report*
  • Alberta Corporate Name report plus Trade-mark report*
  • British Columbia Corporate Name inquiry report
  • Alberta and British Columbia Name inquiry report
  • Prince Edward Island report plus Trade-mark report
  • New Brunswick report plus Trade-mark report
  • Nova Scotia report plus Trade-mark report
  • Western Name inquiry report
  • Federal Trade-mark report with Federal Corporate Names
  • Trade-mark report with full wares and services
  • Trade Name Report
  • Trade Name report (long version)
*
Only accredited NUANS Members have access to Alberta reports.
 

What Kind of Training Does NUANS Provide?

A NUANS online training course is available to NUANS members from their account by clicking on the link "Training Course." This course teaches the various components involved in NUANS. The topics of discussion are:

  • NUANS Overview
  • System Overview
  • Query Formulation
  • The NUANS Preliminary Search System

A NUANS manual is also available to NUANS members by clicking on the link "Manual" from their account.

 

How Can I Obtain Documentation?

  • A user manual is available online.
  • A training course is available online.
  • Corporate name and Trade-mark availability checking regulations and policy information may be obtained from the various government jurisdictions requiring a NUANS search be done for name checking and name reservation.
  • Periodic Newsletters are available online.