Looks Like Intellectual Property Issues Were Addressed in the 2018 Federal Budget

         By Henry Stewart

According to leading Canadian full service intellectual property law firm Bereskin and  Parr LLP, at least one portion of Canada's 2018 Federal budget outlined changes to Canada's intellectual property (IP) laws intended to help Canada’s innovative companies utilize IP assets to help grow their company.

As outlined in the March 9th, 2018 Lexology post, "A Radical New Way of Thinking about our Innovation Economy: Canada’s IP Strategy and the 2018 Budget," last year’s 2017 budget included reference to a Canadian National IP strategy, in order to facilitate an "innovation ecosystem" where commercialized IP (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs, trade secrets and other items)  assist Canadian firms to grow to scale.

This year's budget allocated financing for the strategy, with "an overall commitment" of $85.3Mln for:

• A pilot patent collective ($30Mln) or "sovereign patent fund," which, as outlined in the May 19th , 2017 Globe and Mail post, "Canada needs an innovative intellectual property strategy," will address the calls from "innovation experts who understand the critical role of IP in a 21st-century economy."

• The creation of IP education and legal clinics ($21.5Mln) for "clinical legal education to both train and grow the pool of IP expertise, while at the same time providing much needed IP legal services to early stage companies."

• The development of IP tools ($33.8Mln) to track the pool of IP available at Canadian research institutions and through funding initiatives, which can be taken over and commercialized by Canadian firms. 

As outlined in the March 1st, 2018 post, "'Patent Boxes, our Canadian Space Agency and the Lack of Real Innovation in the 2018 Federal Budget," IP management is a critical component of growing Canada's innovation economy.

It's good to know that others feel the same. At least some of this message seems to be getting through to the Federal Liberal party.

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer