Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Minister Navdeep Bains launched the Patent Collective pilot program to help small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) with patents and intellectual property (IP) needs.
A February 13th press release from ISED indicated that the pilot program will involve the creation of a non-profit organization that “will work with companies in a selected sector to help them use their IP more strategically.”
“Intellectual property is at the core of innovative businesses. For Canada’s economy to succeed, we need to ensure that companies of all sizes have the tools to grow, expand and become competitive global players,” Bains said in the release.
ISED said that applications would be open to Canadian “entities” that can “gather a team” with experience in providing advice on patents and IP.
The chosen applicant will get $30 million CAD over four years to create a non-profit organization to help SMEs.
These tools, the Patent Collective program guide said, will help grow SMEs to scale and will also provide the government “with insight to better support SMEs” in the future.
It particularly noted that the chosen applicant would help SMEs “operating in a patent intensive technological sector or subsector.”
Further to this, it noted that the objective of this help is to help the technology sector “grow to scale by supporting their patent and other IP needs.”
“IP means innovation. With this Patent Collective pilot project, we’ll be able to help companies access the professional help they need to strategically leverage IP to drive growth,” Danielle Keenan, press secretary to Bains, said in a statement to MobileSyrup.
“Any Canadian entity that can gather a team with experience in delivering high-quality patent advice, from any sector, are invited to apply between now and March 15, 2019.”
It’s important to note that SMEs in Canada are competing against tech giants like Apple, which file patents with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office often.
Bains announced this launch as part of the five-year Intellectual Property Strategy that he announced in 2018.
Source: ISED
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