Premier Ford Unveils Intellectual Property Action Plan

Premier Doug Ford recently announced that the Ontario government is launching an Intellectual Property Action Plan. The plan arises out of recommendations made in a report prepared by the Expert Panel on Intellectual Property, which was convened by the government last year. The plan seeks to drive the province’s long-term economic competitiveness by prioritizing the generation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property.

The Intellectual Property Action Plan will put in place:

• supports to help entrepreneurs and start-ups harness intellectual property’s value for economic benefit; and
• a Special Implementation Team on Intellectual Property (“SITIP”), comprised of the IP experts who previously served on the Expert Panel on Intellectual Property.

Together, Ontario’s SITIP and Intellectual Property Action Plan will respond to the Expert Panel’s report and will:

• work with post-secondary institutions and research institutes to strengthen mandates related to commercialization entities within their organizations;
• strengthen Ontario’s IP literacy by developing standardized, web-based basic and advanced IP education curriculums;
• create a centralized provincial resource entity that will increase access to sophisticated IP expertise; and
• develop a governance framework for organizations supporting entrepreneurial and innovation activities.

This announcement is part of a growing effort by the province to keep home-grown ideas and innovations in Ontario. As Premier Ford reportedly stated in a recent press conference, “Too often the priceless intellectual property developed in Ontario gets bought up by the big U.S. or international firms.”

Earlier this year, Premier Ford unveiled Ontario’s COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, created to award funding to academic and research institutions and hospitals to contribute to the global effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.