Government On-Line @ Industry Canada

Corporate Name Search — NUANS^®

• Service area description
• What's available online for clients?
• Clients and benefits of online service
• Our journey to success

Service area description

The NUANS^® is a computerized name search system that compares proposed names with those of existing corporate bodies and trademarks. NUANS searches across federal and provincial jurisdictions, browsing over six million names, to ensure Canadian businesses that their proposed names are not registered in another province. It also produces a listing of names and/or trademarks that are either spelled or sound similar to the proposed name. NUANS is registered in all countries that protect trademarks and have trade agreements with Canada.

What's available online for clients?

Information services:

• Database of over six million names to search, and links to provincial data;



• Classification of goods and services for trademark data file;



• 14 types of reports (several of which are required for incorporating in a province); and



• Surveillance for trademarks, which include weekly reports.

Transaction services:

• Online payments; and
• NUANS Real-Time System.

Clients and benefits of online service

Clients:

• Name search businesses (search houses);
• Lawyers and law firms; and
• Associations, governments, corporations, businesses start-ups, entrepreneurs.

Benefits:

• Ability to meet name search requirements for such things as incorporation or registration of a corporation through self-service;



• Ability to perform non-mandatory searches;



• Time savings (online name retrieval requires only one minute, whereas a written report can require days);



• Cost savings (e.g. reduced fees: clients pay less than half the amount for a self-search than if conducting the search through a search house); and



• NUANS Real-Time System allows clients the opportunity to choose to do their own Pre-Search for available corporate names.

Our journey to success

In August 2002, the NUANS team launched its NUANS Real-Time System, which enables users to monitor the progress of a potential corporate name through to federal incorporation, all done online. Since that time, NUANS has continued to explore public and private sector partnerships to enhance Canada's name-search business.

The current data-standardization initiative, as well as updating and enhancing the content and functionality of NUANS, is scheduled for completion in 2006. We then plan to initiate an enhanced client relationship program to obtain more regular feedback from clients and stakeholders.

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