Time to Promote Innovation to Create Jobs, Growth: a response from President Wilcox

The following text is a letter written by IPIC's President, Peter Wilcox, published in the latest edition of the Hill Times (November 16, 2015). It was a response to an article written by Scott Brison, (President of the Treasury Board of Canada) titled “It’s time to promote innovation to create jobs and growth”.

In last week’s Innovation Briefing, Treasury Board President Scott Brison wrote “Canadian innovators and entrepreneurs are looking for a reliable federal partner that will help leverage Canadian know-how to grow the Canadian economy. We want to be that partner.”

On behalf of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, the Canadian association of patent and trademark agents: bravo!

Patent and trademark agents, Canada’s innovation professionals, help leverage Canadian know-how to grow businesses, help Canadian universities commercialize their research, and help Canadian entrepreneurs to market around the world.

Unfortunately, the governance framework for patent and trademark agents falls short of what Canadians expect of their professions. However, because patent and trademark agents are among the few professions under federal jurisdiction, the new Government has the opportunity to modernize the framework with simple amendments to the Patent Act and the Trade-marks Act.

Why do so? To help foster a culture of innovation in Canada.

To increase the use of the IP system – a key step in successful innovation – we need to ensure that users have confidence in the system. Entrepreneurs must see that their innovation professionals -the highly skilled patent and trademark agents they call upon to assist them in protecting their intellectual property - are regulated like the other professionals they hire (e.g. engineers, accountants, and lawyers). The profession and the government have taken many steps to build and modernize the IP system but legislation is required to provide the profession with the authority to complete the framework.

Minister Brison also wrote about the government’s interest in bringing changes to the tax system and the SR&ED program to encourage innovation. The Intellectual Property Institute of Canada looks forward to discussing these issues, including the concept of an innovation box, while our members continue to help innovators grow the Canadian economy.

Peter Wilcox is the President of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada.