Things to Consider When Incorporating Your Business

Incorporating your business in Canada can provide you with a level of protection in terms of liability. It can also show potential investors that you're serious about handling your business in a professional manner. Before you enter into the incorporation process there are many factors you'll want to consider. 

Will I be able to conduct business throughout the country?

If you make your company a federally incorporated company then you'll be able to conduct business across all of Canada. On the other hand, a corporation who files under OBCA is restricted to doing business in Ontario exclusively, unless it obtains additional licenses. Understand that choosing between a provincial or federal incorporation would depend on the type of business that you run and your vision for the future.

What are all the filing requirements?

As a corporation you'll have to follow the laws of "general application, requiring registration, returns and/or fees" as they apply to each particular province. These requirements are all contained in the CBCA provisions. Additionally, any time there is a change in your corporation you'll need to make necessary filings. There are other restrictions under the Business Names Act which pertains to the name you can select for your company.  

Where can I hold my board of director's meetings?

If you are a federal corporation you can hold those meetings anywhere in Canada. With a provincial corporation those meetings must be held within your province. These requirements should be spelled out in the filing papers.

Filing for incorporation will require you to look ahead to the future of your business. It might seem less costly to do the minimum amount of legal work for a "simple" incorporation application. That approach could come back to haunt you when your business takes off and you look to expand throughout the country. There will be a lot of effort going into your incorporation filing. Make sure you explore all your options to ensure the greater potential for success. In other words, cover all the bases ahead of time and you'll come out on top! 

For more information on incorporation and to place an order to have our experienced paralegals draft  articles of incorporation on your behalf, please visit our website at www.CorporationCentre.ca.

CIPO Now Accepting Sound Trademarks

A ground breaking federal Court of Canada decision has allowed for the trademarking of sounds. CIPO (Canadian Intellectual Property Office) has been resistant to sound trademarks and, up until this point, only allowed words or designs to be trademarked, even though many other countries have already allowed for sound to receive the same protection.

The decision has come from a long and drawn out court case between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios and CIPO. In 1992 MGM applied to trademark the sound of the lion’s roar that viewers hear before any MGM movie. CIPO, after years of delays, eventually denied the trademark application for MGM’s lion roar and MGM appealed the decision.  The case made its way at the federal Court of Canada where MGM won. Because of the ruling, CIPO announced that it will now be accepting sound trademark applications.

Sound trademarks can be considered a kind of “aural brand” in that the sound you hear can instantly trigger the thought of a brand. Besides the MGM lion’s roar, other sounds that have been trademarked by brands in the US include the NBC chimes, the Intel Pentium chord sequence, the 20^th Century Fox music and the Harlem Globetrotter’s theme music. However, in Canada the sound trademark does not extend to longer sounds like songs, which would instead be protected by copyright.

To submit a sound mark in Canada, your application must include:

a.      a statement that the application is for a sound mark registration;

b.     a visual depiction that graphically represents the sound;

c.      a description of the sound; and

d.     an electronic recording of the sound in MP3 or WAV format or on CD or DVD (5 MB max.)

The recording should not contain any looping or repetition of the sound. Types of media other than listed above, hyperlinks, or streaming locations will not be accepted.  New applications for sound marks can only be submitted through a paper application, and not by CIPO's online filing system.

For more information on sound marks visit the CIPO website.

Video Series - PatsyPie Trademark

PatsyPie - Trademark Application Filing Services

PatsyPie is a bakery specializing in gluten-free products such as cookies, brownies and biscotti. Started as a home business in St. Laurent, Quebec by Pat Libling, PatsyPie has grown tremendously, with products now being sold across Canada.

PatsyPie was started because Pat herself is celiac. Over the years Pat has tried practically every gluten-free product on the market but found that none of the products measured up to the quality and taste of regular baked goods. So Pat set out to perfect her gluten-free recipes and once she did, she was in business!

For Pat, finding a creative and original name for her company was easy - PatsyPie is a nickname her husband gave her years ago. As PatsyPie started to become a successful business, Pat knew she needed to protect her company name and logo, so she turned to CorporationCentre.ca to register her Trademark.

Check out Pat's story in the video above and for more information on PatsyPie gluten-free baked goods, please visit the website at www.patsypie.com!