Someone Is Using My Business Name: What Are My Options?

Work out what right you actually hold, first

What you can do about someone using your business name depends entirely on what kind of name protection you already have, because “my business name” can mean three different legal things: a corporate name, a registered trade name, or a trademark. Each carries a different remedy.

1. Identify what you registered and where. If you incorporated provincially in Ontario or Alberta, or registered a trade name there, that registration only gives you exclusive use of the name within that province, not nationwide, according to Government of Canada’s business-naming guidance.
2. Check whether you (or the other party) hold a registered trademark. This is the strongest right and the one worth confirming first, since it changes every step that follows.
3. If you have a registered trademark, assert your exclusive right directly. Send notice based on your Canada-wide statutory right.
4. If you have no registered trademark, assess a passing-off claim built on goodwill, misrepresentation, and damage.
5. Use the corporate registry’s name-conflict process in Ontario or Alberta if the conflict is with another corporation’s name specifically.
6. Consider registering a trademark going forward if the name is central to your business and you want Canada-wide, not just provincial, protection.

Step 1: Confirm what kind of registration is actually in conflict

Before writing a demand letter, pin down exactly what overlaps: is it a corporate name on a certificate of incorporation, a trade name (the name a business operates under, sometimes called a “doing business as” name), or a trademark (a brand identifier registered federally)? A provincial corporate or trade name registration in Ontario or Alberta does not, on its own, grant exclusive rights outside that province, so a business in another province using a similar name may be legally untouchable through that route alone, per the Government of Canada’s guidance on choosing a business name.

Step 2: Check for a registered trademark, yours or theirs

A registered trademark (the closest US equivalent is a “registered trademark” there too, but Canadian registration and enforcement run through the federal Trademarks Act rather than state law) gives its owner “the exclusive right to the use throughout Canada of the trademark in respect of those goods or services,” under section 19 of the Trademarks Act. If you registered the trademark first, this is your strongest tool: it applies in Ontario, Alberta, and every other province equally, because it is federal law. If the other business registered first, the position reverses, and you may be the one at risk of a challenge.

Step 3: If you hold the trademark, assert your exclusive right

With a registered trademark, you can put the other party on notice that their use is confusing with your registered mark and inconsistent with your exclusive Canada-wide right under section 19. Whether to proceed to a demand letter, negotiation, or Federal Court action is a case-by-case decision that depends on the strength of your registration and the extent of the other party’s use.

Step 4: If you have no trademark, assess a passing-off claim

Without a registered trademark, you are not without recourse. Canadian common law (applying federally, so available regardless of whether you are in Ontario or Alberta) recognizes the tort of “passing off,” which allows a business to sue someone for misrepresenting themselves using your name. To succeed, you generally need to show three things, as applied in Beijing Judian Restaurant Co. Ltd. v. Meng: that you possess goodwill attached to the name, that the other party’s use deceived or is likely to deceive the public into thinking the two businesses are connected, and that you have suffered or are likely to suffer actual damage as a result. This route does not require a trademark registration, but it does require you to prove goodwill and confusion yourself, which is a factual burden a registered trademark avoids.

Step 5: Use the corporate registry’s name-conflict tools in Ontario or Alberta

If the conflict is specifically with another corporation’s name (not just a trademark or a general trade name), Ontario and Alberta each give the corporate registry a role in resolving it, though the mechanisms differ:

Federally incorporated companies have a parallel safeguard: a proposed or existing corporate name can be blocked if it is the same as another party’s registered trademark, according to Corporations Canada’s naming guidance.

Step 6: Consider registering a trademark for the future

If the name is central to your brand, registering it as a trademark converts your position from a fact-dependent passing-off claim into a straightforward statutory right enforceable throughout Canada under section 19. This is a forward-looking step rather than an immediate remedy for a dispute already underway, since registration takes time to process, but it changes your leverage in any future conflict.

Where these routes overlap and where they don’t

None of these tools automatically substitutes for another. A corporate name registration in Ontario does not stop someone from using a confusingly similar trade name in Alberta, and a trademark registration is a separate federal right from either provincial corporate registry process. Readers dealing with a live dispute should identify precisely which registration is in conflict, since that determines whether the Ontario or Alberta corporate registry, a passing-off claim, or a trademark enforcement letter is the applicable route.