Robert Embree began his presentation with a brief description of and their role in protecting the distinctive look and feel of an invention. He then highlighted industrial designs’ recent gain in prominence by mentioning the over their design rights. An internal study conducted by CIPO has revealed that Canada is currently lagging behind many developed countries in protecting industrial designs. This finding sparked of the effects of holding industrial designs on an average firm’s revenue per employee and net income per employee. was conducted using a unique Canadian data set obtained with the help of of Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. The study covered 500 Canadian firms operating over the span of 25 years, from 1990 to 2014. It controlled for many factors, most importantly for the effects of obtaining patents on a firm’s revenue. The study found that by acquiring industrial design protections, the average firm’s revenue per employee increased by 19%, net income per employee increased by 23%, and, as a result of the addition of only 10% more industrial designs to the firm’s IP stock, the revenue per employee increased by 1%. The latter finding was particularly significant since the study found that a 10% increase in the number of patents that a firm holds only resulted in a 1.2% increase of revenue per employee. This study’s findings indicate that although patents tend to receive more attention in discussions about economic growth, Canadian firms could experience significant economic benefits by accumulating industrial designs.

After Robert, Alissar Hassan gave an informative about IP rights and business profitability from an Australian perspective. An conducted by IP Australia on the effects of IP rights on market concentration and competition found that the use of IP rights has doubled since the early 2000s. The study also concluded that IP owning businesses tend to gain higher profits compared to their non-IP-owning counterparts, particularly in the manufacturing and wholesale trade sectors. Although the evidence regarding the effects of IP rights on market concentration was inconclusive, the study showed that accumulating different types of IP in the forms of patents, trademarks, and industrial designs tends to positively impact business profitability in Australia. Alissar brought up an interesting point about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on trademark filings in Australia. Although tends to be positive, trademark filings with IP Australia soared in 2020 despite as a result of the pandemic. Researchers at IP Australia attribute this interesting trend to the adaptation of businesses to the new circumstances and are looking to further investigate the topic.

The panel concluded with a Q&A session which once again highlighted the positive effects of industrial designs on business revenue. Given the findings by CIPO researchers regarding the work that Canada needs to do in order to catch up with other developed countries in protecting industrial designs, IP rights seem to play a more topical role in our country’s economic prosperity than ever.

Written by Bonnie Hassanzadeh, IPilogue Managing Editor and Clinic Fellow at the IP Innovation Clinic.

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