A business name lets you operate your business under a name other than its official one, provided it is declared in the register. Labo Legal searches availability and files the declaration for $249 per name, plus taxes.
The short answer: a business name, also called an “other name”, lets a Québec business carry on its activities under a name different from its legal one, provided it is declared to the enterprise registrar. It is the ideal tool for launching a brand, a banner or a division without creating a new corporation.
What is a business name for?
Three situations come up constantly. The numbered corporation, first: 9XXX-XXXX Québec inc. works perfectly well as a legal name, but no one wants it on a storefront; a business name gives you a real trade name without touching the articles. The new brand, next: an established business launches a distinct line or concept, and each banner carries its own declared name. The transition, finally: a self-employed person who incorporates keeps, through a business name, the trade name their clients already know.
What rules must a business name follow?
The same substantive requirements as any business name in Québec: compliance with the Charter of the French language, no confusion with an existing name, nothing misleading. To these is added one rule of its own: a business name must not carry the legal element “inc.”, which is reserved to the corporation’s legal name. And above all it must be declared in the register before being used: operating under an undeclared name exposes you to penalties and weakens your remedies against an imitator.
How to add one, and at what cost?
The declaration is filed with the registrar, in the business’s existing file. The real added value comes before: checking that the name is available and compliant, in the register as much as in the trademarks, so as not to build a brand on ground already occupied. Our service at $249 per name, taxes extra, includes precisely that search, then the filing and the official confirmation. You can declare as many names as your activities warrant, each searched and declared in due form.
Business name or change of name: which to choose?
A business name is added to the legal name, which stays unchanged; it is declared quickly and costs little. Changing the official name replaces the legal name itself, by articles of amendment, with higher government fees. Our field rule: as long as the brand is a project or one facet of the business, a business name is enough; when the brand has become the corporation’s very identity, a change of name brings the legal into line with reality.
Three different tools for three different aims, often confused.
| Business name | Change of name | Trademark | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What changes | A name is added | The legal name is replaced | Nothing in the enterprise register |
| What it covers | Commercial use | The corporation’s articles | The distinguishing sign itself |
| Portée | Québec | Québec | Canada |
| Formalité | Declaration in the register | Articles of amendment | Application for registration |
| Typical timeline | Rapide | Quick once the file is ready | Long |
| Number allowed | Plusieurs | A single legal name | One per mark |
| Réversible | Yes, by simple withdrawal | By another change | Periodic renewal |
Depending on what you are trying to do, one or the other of these services.
A business name creates no entity
Here is the most important point in this article, and the one we are most often asked to fix in files already under way. A business name is an appellation, nothing more. It gives birth to no legal person, creates no separate patrimony and puts up no wall between liabilities.
The consequence is direct: if your banner A runs up debts or is the subject of a claim, the whole corporation answers, with all of its assets, including those you mentally associate with banner B. The two brands may have different logos, different clienteles and different teams; they are nonetheless one and the same debtor.
That reality should guide your choice. If you declare distinct names for marketing reasons, a business name is the perfect tool, simple and inexpensive. If you do it to isolate a risk, a more exposed activity, a partnership with a third party, a project that might be sold separately, it simply does not produce that effect, and what you should be considering is a separate corporation is what should be considered.
How to sign, invoice and get paid
Daily practice follows from the above. Undertakings are given by the corporation, under its legal name. The usual wording identifies the corporation and then mentions the banner: the legal person, followed by a statement that it does business under such a name. Your contracts, your invoices and your terms of sale should carry that complete identification.
Signing a contract under the business name alone does not necessarily void the undertaking, but it creates an ambiguity no one needs: your counterparty can claim to have dealt with someone else, and collection becomes more complicated. The same reasoning applies to the bank account, opened in the corporation’s name with mention of the banner, and to the tax registrations, which belong to the corporation and not to each name. An invoice must moreover carry the information required for TPS et TVQ, whatever trade name is displayed.
Declare, then maintain
The declaration is not a one-time act. The business name appears in the business’s public file, and that file must reflect reality: a name abandoned should be withdrawn, a name newly used should be added before it is used, and these movements are reflected in your declaration to the registrar.
Leaving unused banners lying around is not harmless. They appear publicly as activities of the business, they can confuse a partner consulting the register, and they complicate due diligence on the day of a transaction, where the buyer will want to know what each of those names covers.
When to switch to a change of name
A reliable signal: the day no one, not your clients, not your employees, not your suppliers, uses the legal name any more, it has become nothing but a source of administrative friction. Contracts to explain, cheques made out wrong, search visibility scattered between two identities. A change of the official name costs more, but it makes that mismatch disappear once and for all, without the corporation changing its legal personality or losing its contracts.
Frequently asked questions
What does adding a business name cost in Québec?
At Labo Legal, $249 plus taxes per name, search of availability and compliance included, with the filing of the declaration with the registrar and official confirmation sent by email.
Can I have several business names for one business?
Yes. A business may declare as many other names as it actually uses, each name having to be compliant, available and declared in the register before use.
Does a business name protect my brand?
The declaration in the register publicly establishes your use of the name in Québec, which is a first protection. For protection extending across Canada, registering a trademark remains the strong route; discuss it with a lawyer in consultation.