Ontario launches Intellectual Property resource

• Industry Update

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The Ontario government has launched a new agency, Intellectual Property Ontario, to serve as a “go-to resource for Intellectual Property (IP) expertise” aimed at helping companies strengthen their ability to compete in the global market.

Intellectual Property Ontario will provide businesses with intellectual property strategy advice, legal expertise and educational resources.

“Ontario has a world-class postsecondary education system and is home to innovative start-ups and scale-up firms,” said Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities. “Giving postsecondary education institutions, businesses and innovators the support they need to help generate, protect, manage, and commercialize their intellectual property will support innovators, encourage long-term economic growth and ensure that Ontario taxpayers benefit from the inventions and discoveries that result from publicly funded research and innovation.”

To ensure the economic and commercial benefits of local innovation remain in the province, the Ontario government is also:

• Implementing a new framework that will help publicly assisted colleges and universities better commercialize their ideas and products generated through “Ontario-made” research.
• Helping innovators understand the value of protecting their intellectual property by increasing access to digital education modules. Two foundational online IP courses are available for free in English and French through the University of Torontoand the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
• Supporting Ontario’s innovation partners, such as the Regional Innovation Centres, to succeed in domestic and international markets by helping them make their ideas marketable and attract talent, capital and customers through the implementation of a new Intellectual Property Governance Framework and new intellectual property metrics.

Intellectual Property Ontario will be chaired by Karima Bawa, Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Additional members appointed to the Board of Directors include Sally Daub, Founder, Pool Global Partners; Elliot Fung, Executive Director, Medical Innovation Xchange (MIX); Dan Herman, PhD, Special Advisor to Government and Founder, Go To Jupiter Productions Inc.; and Hongwei Liu, Chief Executive Director, Mappedin.

According to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, small- and medium-sized enterprises that own intellectual property are three times more likely to expand domestically and more than four times more likely to expand internationally.