Question Period Note: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STRATEGY

How is the government helping Canadian entrepreneurs to protect their intellectual property?

• Canadians are smart, creative and innovative, but they need the know-how and tools to protect and leverage their ideas for commercial success.
• The Government of Canada’s National Intellectual Property (IP) Strategy ensures that Canadian businesses, creators, entrepreneurs and innovators have access to the best possible IP resources through IP awareness, education and advice, strategic IP tools for growth, and IP legislation.
• Continuing the work of the IP Strategy, Budget 2024 provides $14.5 million for the patent collective, to ensure that small- and medium-sized clean tech businesses continue to benefit from IP support to grow their businesses and leverage IP.

Launched in 2018, the National IP Strategy aims to make sure that Canadian businesses, creators, entrepreneurs and innovators have access to the best possible IP resources through IP awareness, education and advice, strategic IP tools for growth, and IP legislation.
IP awareness, education and advice initiatives under the strategy include:
• The creation of a College of Patent and Trademark Agents to ensure that professional and ethical standards are maintained, and to support the provision of quality advice.
• An IP awareness and use survey to help understand how Canadians are using IP.
• The creation of an IP Centre of Expertise to provide IP advice to federal government program officers working with businesses, creators, and officials and boost IP engagement.
• Support to establish an IP Clinics Program in universities.

Strategic IP tools for growth include: accelerated dispute resolution at the federal court on IP issues and expedited tariff setting by the Copyright Board; an IP marketplace (ExploreIP) to provide one-stop web-based access to IP owned by Canadian governments and universities that can be bought or licensed; and a patent collective pilot program to enable firms to share IP expertise. Innovation Asset Collective (IAC), a not-for-profit organization, was selected to administer the patent collective with the purpose of assisting Canadian small- and medium-sized entreprises (SMEs) in the data-driven clean tech sector with their IP needs. IAC officially launched in 2020.

Legislative initiatives following the launch of the IP Strategy include:
• The Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2 (Bill C-86), which laid the foundation for the government’s new financial consumer protection framework. It included amendments to key IP frameworks, including the Patent Act, Copyright Act, and Trademarks Act, that clarify acceptable practices and prevent misuses of IP rights. Most of these amendments are now in force.

• Amendments to the Copyright Act to comply with a commitments made under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), namely, to extend the term of copyright protection to the lifetime of the author, plus 70 years (up from 50 years).
• Bill C-47 amended the Patent Act to enable Canada to comply with a commitment made under CUSMA to provide patent term adjustments as compensation to patent applicants who experience unreasonable delays in the issuance of their patents. The government remains committed to ensuring patents are issued in a timely manner and will continue to support a robust and efficient patent system.
In Budget 2021, the Government of Canada announced a Strategic Intellectual Property Program Review. The review, which is nearing completion, is intended as a broad assessment of IP provisions in Canada’s innovation and science programming, from basic research to near-commercial projects. This work helps ensure Canada and Canadians benefit from innovations and IP. The Government also announced the creation of Elevate IP ($90M over two years) and IP Assist ($75M over three years) to help Canadian innovators, start-ups and technology-intensive firms access expert IP services.

To build on these investments, Budget 2022 provided $47.8 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, and $20.1 million ongoing to launch a new national lab-to-market platform to help graduate students and researchers take their work to market; $10.6 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, and $2 million ongoing to launch a survey to assess the government’s previous investments in science and research, and how knowledge created at post-secondary institutions generates commercial outcomes; $2.4 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, and $0.6 million ongoing to expand use of ExploreIP, so that more public sector intellectual property is put to use helping Canadian businesses; $0.8 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, and $0.2 million ongoing to expand the IP Legal Clinics Program, which will make it easier to access basic intellectual property services.

Budget 2022 also announced the establishment of the Canadian Innovation and Investment Agency (now known as the Canada Innovation Corporation (CIC)) as a new, operationally independent organization to maximize business research and development (R&D) expenditures across all sectors to boost exports, improve productivity, and support the transition to a net-zero economy. The CIC will also support business investment in, and protection of, IP rights to help grow Canadian businesses in global markets. The Government released a statement on December 19, 2023, indicating that the full implementation of the Canada Innovation Corporation (CIC) would be undertaken no later than 2026-2027.
Budget 2024 proposes to provide $14.5 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for the Innovation Asset Collective . This initiative will continue to ensure that small- and medium-sized clean tech businesses benefit from specialized intellectual property support to grow their businesses and leverage intellectual property.

If pressed on high profile patent sales or transfers:
• Strategic use of IP can take different forms, including commercialization, licensing, and selling at a profit. Canada’s IP Strategy focuses on ensuring that companies make informed decisions.
• The global marketplace of patents plays a critical role in the global economy. Strong competition in a free and open market drives entrepreneurship and innovation, which leads to lower prices and more choice for Canadian consumers.
• Through the IP Strategy, the government aims to foster a stronger IP culture in Canada across all parts of the innovation ecosystem.
• The leadership of public corporations is ultimately accountable to their shareholders for the decisions taken in advancing IP strategies.