It can be quite confusing distinguishing between trademarks, business names, trade names and corporate names. There are difficulties with these terms, as governments and people use them differently. For example in Ontario, a “business name” is most often used to refer to the name of a business that is not incorporated. On the other hand, Alberta uses “trade name” instead of “business name” in its legislation for essentially the same thing. In addition, many people refer to a “corporate name” as being a “business name.” All three of these refer to the names of businesses, be they incorporated or unincorporated.
A trademark, according to the standard definition, is “a mark that has been adopted to distinguish the source of a particular good and/or service from other sources in a similar line of business.” For example, ABC Company could be selling its products using the name “Zink” for its packaging, etc. The business name would be ABC Company, and the trademark would be “Zink.” If this company wanted to protect “Zink”, then it would apply for the registration of the trademark. In this case the business name is different than the trademark.
ABC Company may also wish to protect its corporate name “ABC.” It is a common misconception that a business name, trade name or corporate name registration protects the name. In fact, only a trademark can protect a name. In this case, ABC Company would have to use ‘ABC’ as a trademark and should also apply for a trademark registration.