Post Tagged with: "innovation"

Patent by Brook (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/3fKqYy

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 160: Peter Carrescia on Why Patents Won’t Solve Canada’s Innovation Problem

In recent years, there has been growing effort to link longstanding concerns about Canadian innovation with patents. The argument – which has crossed into Canada’s strategy around AI – posits that the road to an innovative economy is inextricably linked to a greater emphasis on intellectual property and in particular on patents. But what if the correlation between patents and innovation is weak at best? What if an emphasis on patents may actually be harmful to startups whose attention and resources is better placed elsewhere?

Peter Carrescia is a successful innovator and investor who recently wrote a Globe and Mail op-ed that raises precisely these issues, warning that “creating policy that pushes patents regardless of area or company stage and gauges success by counting patents is misguided and, in fact, dangerous to the success of startups.” He joins the Law Bytes podcast to talk about his experience and concerns with direction of government policy that may be mistaking an IP policy for an innovation one.

Read more ›

March 20, 2023 6 comments Podcasts
Fortune Global Forum 2018 29 by FORTUNE Global Forum (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/2c9qyF4

What Happened to Canada’s Innovation Agenda?: How Innovation Policy Has Been Sidelined By Cultural Policies and Misplaced Provincial Prioritization of Patents

It was just five years ago that the Liberal party, then mired in third place nationally, made innovation a centerpiece of its electoral strategy. The 2015 Liberal platform referenced “innovation” 10 times with promises to establish a national innovation agenda that would touch on everything from agriculture to the everyday work of government. Within weeks of the election, the role of industry minister was recast as the innovation, science and economic development minister, armed with a mandate letter peppered with instructions to pursue an innovation agenda.

Fast forward to 2020 and innovation has largely disappeared from the government’s radar screen with the word banished from the 2019 election platform. My Globe and Mail op-ed notes that the response to COVID-19 has understandably emerged as job one, but the disappearance of innovation as a government policy priority raises serious concerns about how Canada will foster the economic growth needed to help recover from the devastating effects of the global pandemic.

Read more ›

October 8, 2020 6 comments Columns
Patent Halifax 1899 by Neil Turner (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/frWXRB

The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 33: “Canadian Patenting is Not Going to Drive Anything” – Aidan Hollis on New Research on Patents and Innovation

One of Canada’s longstanding digital and economic policy concerns has involved innovation, with fears that the Canadian economy is failing to keep pace with other, more innovative economies. Some point to intellectual property as a critical part of policy equation, arguing that stronger IP laws would help incentivize greater innovation. Economists Nancy Gallini and Aidan Hollis recently released an interesting report for the Institute for Research on Public Policy examining the role of patents and patent policy in Canadian innovators’ decisions to sell their IP rather than continue to develop it in Canada, and the incentives driving this decision. Professor Hollis joins the podcast this week to discuss the report, its link to innovation policy, and what the government could consider to address ongoing concerns.

Read more ›

November 25, 2019 2 comments Podcasts
ISED Superclusters

How Canadian Copyright Reform Could Support the Government’s Supercluster Investment

The release of Budget 2019 yesterday again placed the government’s innovation strategy in the spotlight as the government emphasized its significant spending record, including $950 million for the superclusters, $4 billion for science research, $795 million in 31 strategic innovation fund agreements and $2.3 billion for clean technology support. The investments were highlighted in a recently released an innovation scorecard, Building a Nation of Innovators, which takes stock of the government’s efforts over the past three years. My new CIGI policy brief argues that while the benefits from this spending will take years to realize, increased investments in strategic sectors are the easy part of innovation policy.

Read more ›

March 20, 2019 3 comments Columns
Secretary Tillerson Greets Canadian Foreign Minister Freeland Before Their Bilateral Meeting in Washington by U.S. Department of State U.S. Government Works https://flic.kr/p/RX7DzR

How Canada Can Use NAFTA’s IP Chapter to Level the Innovation Playing Field

The NAFTA renegotiation gets underway today, days after Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined Canada’s NAFTA negotiating objectives. As her first core objective, Freeland identified modernizing NAFTA so that “all sectors of our economy can reap the full benefits of the digital revolution.” Those comments suggest that the IP chapter and a new e-commerce chapter will be top negotiating priorities. I’ll post on the e-commerce chapter tomorrow, but this post highlights my recent CIGI essay on how Canada can use the NAFTA intellectual property chapter to help level the innovation playing field.

Read more ›

August 16, 2017 3 comments News