Ontario is launching a new agency to encourage the development, protection and commercialization of intellectual property in the province, in an effort to bolster its economy in an era in which ideas and patents are increasingly concentrated in jurisdictions such as Silicon Valley and China.
The province quietly published a new regulation on its website this week creating a new agency called Intellectual Property Ontario. The regulation says the agency plans to boost public access to resources about how IP such as patents can boost economic competitiveness, and to help the researchers, technologists and other Ontarians generating that IP to bring it to market. It will also advise the provincial government on how to use IP to make Ontario more competitive.
The regulation also says the agency will partner with both domestic and international postsecondary institutions and business support groups, such as incubators and accelerators, to boost the province’s strengths around IP and other patents. The provincial IP panel was headed by Jim Balsillie, the former co-chief executive of BlackBerry Ltd. predecessor Research in Motion, who has become an evangelist for IP commercialization since leaving the company nearly a decade ago. It also included numerous IP lawyers, professors and other experts.
Neither Mr. Balsillie nor representatives from the two provincial ministries overseeing the panel immediately responded to requests for comment Friday.Your time is valuable. Have the Top Business Headlines newsletter conveniently delivered to your inbox in the morning or evening.
joshokane Excellent idea by the provincial govt.
So long as Ford is not put in charge of it !!