Alberta needs to ‘giddy up’ on its IP Strategy

By Bronte Valk, CCI’s Manager of Government Affairs in Alberta

‍

It’s Stampede season in Calgary right now, a perfect kick off to what Premier Jason Kenney is calling the “ best summer in Alberta’s history.” It comes on the heels of a pretty impressive spring for Alberta’s tech sector, fuelled by the growth of the province’s data and IP-intensive firms.

At the Council of Canadian Innovators, our members have been talking to governments about the importance of intellectual property — the currency of innovation — for years, because we can see it in the numbers.

In 1976, just 16 per cent of the value of the companies on the S&P 500 came from intangible assets like data and intellectual property. Today, intangible assets account for more than 91 per cent of the S&P 500. This means the world’s economy has changed, but our economic policies have not kept pace.

The past year has shown some promise as provinces across Canada are finally catching onto how valuable intellectual property can be in today’s economy. Ontario, Quebec and Alberta are all developing intellectual property frameworks of one sort or another and B.C. has stated their desire to begin developing an IP strategy soon.

In Canada, an enormous amount of valuable research is done at publicly funded universities; in fact, taxpayers spend $5 billion on post-secondary institutions in Alberta alone, and our academics do world-leading research across all disciplines.

Not all of this research has commercial applications, but IP can have both economic and security implications, so developing an intellectual property strategy is a vital step to ensure that Canada continues to reap the benefits of taxpayer investments, and protects national security priorities.

Alberta’s IP strategy is very focused on universities, but the generation of intellectual property doesn’t just happen at our post-secondary institutions. Anywhere there is human capital there will be ideas development.

Earlier this year, [CCI submitted recommendations](https://www.dropbox.com/s/1eo3yd7h43wrbhz/Guiding Principles for a Made-In-Alberta IP Strategy.pdf?dl=0) on the key elements of a successful IP strategy. On behalf of our Alberta member companies, we asked the government to ensure that the strategy also considers taxpayer-funded innovation intermediaries.

Startup incubators, accelerators and other organizations funded by the government have a role to play in today’s knowledge-based economy. These intermediaries provide services for founders of early-stage companies and sometimes to established firms. However, without policies which treat IP as an important source of value in the 21st century economy, IP generation and commercialization can become a peripheral pursuit.

Ownership of ideas is a precondition to commercialization. If companies don’t own their ideas they face barriers to growth. As part of our submission to the Alberta government, we’re calling for IP education aimed towards startups. If companies don’t establish their IP positions early, they can incur major expenses playing catch-up later and become a target of competitors who seek to limit their freedom to operate.

The bottom line is that the Alberta government is moving in a good direction, by recognizing the importance of IP in the 21st century. But to borrow from the festivities of the Stampede, it’s time for this strategy to giddy up and move quickly forward. Our members are eager to work with the government to ensure this strategy is successful for the benefit of the Alberta economy for years to come.

‍

‍

If you’re interested in getting CCI Info Alerts about government policy announcements, along with thoughtful perspectives like this one delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up here .

‍