This post was originally published on YSpace.

The Collision Conference is North America’s fastest growing tech conference – taking a forward-looking approach to connect the tech industry with every other industry in the world. Typically, attendees must pay $79 to attend this annual event. For the second year in a row, Innovation 91��ɫ and the Student Success Office are joining forces to offer 91��ɫ students the exclusive opportunity to claim one free ticket (with 100 total tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis). The event will take place on April 20-22, 2021.��

To claim your free ticket, you must become a 91��ɫ Digital Ambassador!

To become a YU Digital Ambassador: complete the 3 steps, and the form below by 11:59pm – Friday March 26, 2021.��

1. Follow at least 2 of these accounts on Instagram: @yspaceyu, @ellawomenyu, @schulichstartups, @bestlassonde, @studentlifeyu, @yorkulaps, @c4.capstone, @lassondeschool, @collisionconfhq or follow @IPOsgoode on Twitter
2. Subscribe to at least 1 of these newsletters:
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3. Post your best startup/business idea on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with the hashtags #YUDigitalAmbassador and #CollisionFromHome and tag @yspaceyu and @collisionconfhq (@CollisionHQ on Twitter and @collisionconf on Facebook)

Once you have completed the 3 steps above, to receive your FREE 2021 Collision Ticket.

Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis while quantities last, so act fast!

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The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) made building IP awareness and education one of the key pillars of our . Through the program we established, we’ve been able to engage directly with partners with a keen interest in growing IP knowledge, and helping business use their IP more strategically. In particular, our IP Awareness and Education Program has made a point of reaching out to women entrepreneurs, who traditionally have been less likely to use IP, to help them become more IP savvy and give them tools for business success that flow from their IP.

Our work on awareness and education supports the Government of Canada’s Innovation and Skills Plan, as well as the National IP Strategy which was announced in April 2018. In last year’s budget, the Government also announced $85.3 million over five years to support the National IP Strategy. CIPO was very proud to have our IP Awareness and Education Program established as a foundational piece of the Strategy.

We don’t have all the answers today about why women entrepreneurs and innovators are somewhat underrepresented in terms of global IP filings. We know that in 2017, 31.2% of all applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) included women inventors, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s PCT Yearly Review.�� For PCT applications originating in Canada, the number is 24.8%. Of all inventors named in PCT applications, only 16.4% were women. Data we’ve compiled at CIPO suggests that women-owned businesses are disproportionately among those with no IP.

We can take meaningful steps today to help ensure that more women have a better understanding of IP and are able to use it strategically, to try to move the needle in a positive direction. That includes continuing efforts to increase IP literacy and the strategic use of IP by women entrepreneurs and scientists through targeted initiatives like those we have in our IP Awareness and Education Program at CIPO. The Empowering Women Entrepreneurs symposium is just one outstanding example of the ways we strive to keep the dialogue alive about IP and innovation among women.

The tools and resources we offer to support businesses and innovators are free and accessible, and available at . They can help you learn about IP, from the basics of patents, trademarks and industrial designs, to more advanced topics for those further along on their IP journeys. We have a team of working in all the regions of Canada, who are there to answer questions and provide insight into IP strategies for businesses. And we’re adding more resources all the time to help Canadians get the IP knowledge they need to succeed.

We’re here to help! Reach out to CIPO any time you have questions about IP, and together we can continue to help women innovate, grow their businesses and succeed.

Written by Darlene Carreau,��Director General, Business Services Branch at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

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Enabling women entrepreneurs to better leverage their IP was the focus of IP Osgoode's  at Osgoode Hall Law School on 11 February 2019. The symposium brought together IP experts and accomplished entrepreneurs for a full day of panels, break-out sessions, and networking opportunities. The inspiring event was the brainchild of IP Osgoode's founder & director, Professor Pina D’Agostino, and the team at Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) led by Darlene Carreau, Director General of the Business Services Branch at the CIPO.  The symposium continues the organizations’ efforts to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship across Canada.

Keynote Address and Panel Discussion

, cofounder of & , discussed challenges she overcame as a young female entrepreneur. She highlighted the benefits she experienced from having a male business partner whom she trusts and who advocates for her. Through discussions with the attendees, Rawlley advised that finding a trustworthy partner requires following your gut and looking for a personality that complements your own. In addition to having an advocate, it is essential to be confident in business interactions. You can develop confidence from self-learning and equipping yourself with new technical skills. Rawlley also balances confidence with vulnerability. She suggested that vulnerability through sharing negative experiences when networking with others is important to make meaningful connections and learn from colleagues in the industry.

During the panel discussion, Darlene Carreau discussed the issues with low IP awareness and use among Canadian enterprises. IP is essential to businesses as they grow and scale. , Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and former Chief Legal Officer for Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM), contextualized the conversation by adding that even after paying registration fees, maintaining IP can be a significant cost. For example, having IP registrations can make companies a target for .

Jacqueline (Jackie Cooper), former Chief Revenue Officer at Muse, discussed how these business challenges present opportunities to find new ways to leverage IP rights. Jessica Rawlley added that IP has to be seen as an investment and not as a cost. Thinking about IP in early business stages is not typically a priority and it tends to be pushed down on a company’s list of things to do. Through her discussion questions, Professor D’Agostino highlighted issues such as the lack of innovation that aims to address women’s needs. Considering women’s perspectives in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is a step toward this goal. One example of how women entrepreneurs have changed the way innovation addresses women’s issues is , which uses a fiber found in bullet proof vests and climbing materials to create indestructible pantyhose.

Important Conversations

The event was an incredibly unique opportunity for women entrepreneurs to obtain advice from a female perspective, instead of receiving business advice that is blind to their realities. Those that attended the event had the rare chance to receive guidance from IP professionals in circumstances that were safe and welcoming for women.

In the afternoon breakout sessions, participants were able to have direct conversations with IP experts and receive immediate feedback, without any interruptions or condescension. As we heard throughout the day, these are issues that continue to beguile women in business, especially in the technology industry. In particular, , the Waterloo Region IP Advisor at the CIPO, spoke about her experiences advising male Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) who think they know everything about IP, and the keynote, Jessica Rawlley, reflected on the times when business connections would ignore her until her male business partner repeated the same thought. This is a sad reality which hinders progress for professional women, but at the symposium participants were actually respected and heard.

The Women Entrepreneurship Symposium provided a wealth of information for women business owners. It provided resources, information, and networking opportunities for women who are accomplishing incredible things and stimulating the Canadian economy through business. But perhaps the most important takeaway was the hope and inspiration that will undoubtedly give participants the confidence they need to succeed.

Meeting so many formidable women who had started or were planning to start businesses was immensely encouraging. At the start of the day, Interim Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Mary Condon had expressed her hope that we would all leave with more “inspiration and enthusiasm” than when we arrived. And she got her wish.

Written by Gillian Burrell and Summer Lewis. Gillian Burrell is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Summer Lewis is an IPilogue Editor and a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Co-chaired by Osgoode Professor Pina D’Agostino, founder and director of IP Osgoode and the Innovation Clinic, and Darlene Carreau, Director-General, Business Services Branch, CIPO, the symposium will bring together an impressive group of successful women entrepreneurs, business leaders, and IP practitioners who will reflect on their own experiences and mentor the attendees on how to recognize, protect and commercialize their IP.

The symposium features a keynote presentation from , the co-founder of MaaS Pros and TIEIT Inc. Rawlley has been recognized for her outstanding entrepreneurship and contributions to the country’s innovation ecosystem. She is the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce’s 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year and TIEIT also received the Innovation of the Year award at the same event.

The morning panel, entitled “IP & Commercialization – Protecting and Leveraging Your Most Valuable Assets: You and Your Ideas,” will focus on the importance of having an IP strategy and best practices for leveraging some of the main areas of IP. The panel will also focus on key issues to identify and act on as well as the realities of starting a business. Chaired by D’Agostino, the panel features Darlene Carreau from CIPO, along with , former Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Research in Motion (Blackberry) and Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation, and , Chief Revenue Office, Muse.

Following a networking luncheon, attendees will break into smaller groups and circulate through four IP-themed mentorship sessions. These sessions offer an interactive networking opportunity for the participants to ask questions, connect with leading experts and entrepreneurs, and receive mentorship directed at their professional and business goals. The four mentorship session themes are structured around pivotal aspects of the commercialization cycle: 1) IP identification and protection, 2) IP commercialization and strategies, 3) IP and financing, and 4) growing and scaling.

Carreau will be joined by , Associate, Bereskin & Parr LLP, and , Lawyer and Patent Agent, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, to discuss how entrepreneurs should recognize the value in their ideas and inventions and protect them via various forms of IP law.

During the IP commercialization and strategies sessions, Karima Bawa will be joined by , Partner, Cassels Brock, to discuss how IP can be effectively leveraged and commercialized in many ways.

The IP and financing mentorship sessions will give attendees insight into the importance of having and leveraging IP to secure external funding. , Regional Innovation Officer, Innovation Canada (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada) and , CPA, CA, Baker Tilly Vaughan LLP, will draw from their experiences in areas such as entrepreneurship and manufacturing to guide attendees forward.

Recognizing the important role that scale-ups play in Canada’s economy, Jackie Cooper and , Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, will speak to the unique challenges that entrepreneurs and start-ups face as they move towards the scale-up level.

The ‘Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: Effective Strategies for IP Commercialization and Success’ symposium continues the efforts of IP Osgoode and CIPO to encourage and empower entrepreneurs across Canada. IP Osgoode and CIPO staff will be on hand to connect with attendees looking to access services and tools such as IP Osgoode’s and the CIPO’s new .

Founded in 2010, the Innovation Clinic is the largest pro bono IP legal clinic and the first of its kind in Canada. In collaboration with and , the Innovation Clinic provides experiential learning experiences for Osgoode students in the areas of IP and technology law while at the same time providing pro bono one-to-one IP law information and support to inventors, entrepreneurs, and start-up companies in Toronto, 91��ɫ Region, Waterloo Region, and beyond.

CIPO’s IP Awareness and Education Program serves as a one-stop shop that helps connect Canadians with the IP tools, resources and experts they need at every stage of their IP commercialization journey.

The symposium is free of charge and open to all members of the 91��ɫ community and anyone interested in learning more about IP law and the role of IP in commercial success.

About IP Osgoode

Conceptualized & founded in 2008 by Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino, IP Osgoode, the Intellectual Property (IP) Law and Technology Program at Osgoode Hall Law School, is an independent and authoritative voice which explores legal governance issues at the intersection of intellectual property and technology. IP Osgoode cultivates interdisciplinary, comparative and transnational research, collaboration, policy-thinking and practice on the basis of a tight connection between teaching, research and clinical action. IP Osgoode has put Osgoode and 91��ɫ on the map in the global IP debate. We aim to influence the IP debate in Canada and internationally by educating our students and collaborating with the IP community in Canada and worldwide. Together, we have built an innovative program that is cutting-edge and completely unique to Osgoode

About 91��ɫ

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

About CIPO

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office��(CIPO) is a Special Operating Agency��(SOA) of (ISED). CIPO is responsible for the administration and processing of the greater part of ��(IP) in Canada. CIPO's areas of activity include trademarks, patents, copyright, industrial designs and integrated circuit topographies. CIPO's mandate is to deliver high quality and timely IP services to customers, and to increase awareness, knowledge and effective use of IP by Canadians.

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�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ����

Lara Hammoud

Q1 Do you believe that it is important to have more women involved in the IP system?

It is important that every citizen gets the chance to contribute to the economy in one way or another. Diversity of opinion and thought is the cradle of creativity and innovation. The gender, race or age of the contributor is insignificant as long as their contribution furthers our goal to make a positive difference in each other’s lives. This especially applies to the IP system as the shield and the protector of innovation. People from different backgrounds and experiences and of different gender see the world through different lenses. With that diversity and a dose of female sense of compassion and responsibility, women’s participation in the IP system will certainly boost innovation and ensure a proper intellectual property protection.

Q2 Have you noticed a gender gap in your industry? Is the situation changing?

In my brief experience in the finance and legal world, as well as my current experience as an entrepreneur, the gender gap is definitely evident in some industries more than in others. However, I would definitely say that the tide is turning. At the Western Accelerator that I am currently a part of, female entrepreneurs are by far not a minority. As a matter of a fact, out of the group of eight start-ups, only three are led by men.

Q3 Do you think it is more difficult for female innovators and entrepreneurs to secure funding (and, therefore, be able to afford IP costs)?

Based on reports and stats, it is obvious that female-led start-ups are funded less. Now, the reasons for that may be various (e.g., not enough women venturing into the entrepreneurial route). However, there are many emerging initiatives that are addressing this specific concern. We are witnessing more and more venture capital firms, collaboration spaces, incubators and accelerators that either fully focus on female-led start-ups or make an effort to recruit more female entrepreneurs.

Q4 Are there unique challenges that female inventors and entrepreneurs face?

In my opinion, female entrepreneurs have the same opportunities as their male counterparts with respect to resources such as training, mentorships and sometimes funding. The challenges that women most often face are building their credibility and being taken seriously. In some industries, women have to prove themselves worthy to get that funding or to close that deal. In this sense, entrepreneurship is not any different than any other male dominant field.

Q5 How can the innovation and IP ecosystems become more inclusive for under-represented groups, such as female entrepreneurs?

Any change starts with a change in perceptions and values (i.e. culture). To make innovation and IP ecosystems more inclusive, the industry and the society should undergo a shift towards an impartial and more inclusive culture. The culture will then trickle into action and common practice. This is when we will drop the word “female” when we address a woman who is an entrepreneur, and the word entrepreneur will stand for both female and male entrepreneurs.

Q6 What types of assistance will benefit female entrepreneurs?

I believe that the best assistance an entrepreneur would benefit from is mentorship. Strong mentors can drag entrepreneurs out from their down-moments and help them reach their highs. As mentioned earlier, female entrepreneurs need to be resilient and must learn how to prove themselves worthy. And with a strong and trustworthy mentor – the sky is truly the limit.

The post #WorldIPDay Spotlight on Lara Hammoud: Improving Access to Justice with @LawyerlyCanada appeared first on IPOsgoode.

The IP Osgoode Innovation Clinic is a needs-based,��innovation-to-market legal clinic operated in collaboration with Innovation 91��ɫ and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. The Innovation Clinic is staffed by student volunteers from Osgoode Hall Law School who are supervised by lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. Under the guidance and mentorship of the supervising lawyers, Innovation Clinic Fellows provide one-to-one legal information services to inventors, entrepreneurs, and start-up companies to assist with the innovation and commercialization processes.

If you are interested in becoming a client of the , please visit our for more information.

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, the Bergerons’ gift will create 100 fellowships over the next ten years to support 91��ɫ students in STEM majors who show great promise and leadership potential. In addition to one of a kind experience, graduates of the Bergeron Science and Technology program will earn a Bergeron Distinction in Entrepreneurship and New Ventures and the top two scholars will be awarded the Bergeron Entrepreneur Medal. Both the distinction and medal will be recognized at graduation.

Douglas Bergeron is currently the CEO and largest shareholder of , and was born in Windsor, Ontario. He obtained his undergraduate degree at 91��ɫ in 1983, with a major in computer science. His wife, Sandra Bergeron, is a venture partner with , a director of and , chairman of , and a highly regarded female technology leader in Silicon Valley.

IP Osgoode applauds this investment in the next generation of entrepreneurial engineers and looks forward to supporting 91��ɫ's students on the intellectual property and technology front.

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We live at a unique time, a time of profound global economic, social and cultural shift. The pace of change around us is only increasing. Innovations born in the next few years are going to create the new economy based on solving the critical issues facing humanity: sustainable energy; transportation; life sciences; research in cancer and other diseases, etc. Innovation, as the 2009 Kauffman Foundation report on the economic impact of MIT argues, creates wealth and economic and social progress. (Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT, Roberts, Eesley, 2009). According to the report, active companies spawned by the MIT ecosystem are equivalent in revenue to the seventeenth-largest economy in the world. Closer to home, an outstanding initiative to create a similar centre of excellence in research and innovation is The MaRS Centre in Toronto. Innovation and design are not only increasingly important competitive business tools and agents of social change in the new global economy, but their outcomes are mission critical intellectual assets.

In creating the new course in Management of Innovation + Design (MGMT6800U) at the Schulich Business School at 91��ɫ, my colleagues Robert Kozinets, Kelly Parke and I, have recognized the multi disciplinary nature of the innovation process. As such, we have identified a number of areas of research and expertise critical to innovation. I call the approach of identifying the various salient practices of innovation –Innovation Mapping. One of the key components of this map is the strategic role of Intellectual Property rights. Between patents, trademarks and copyrights, IP provides a wide blanket of protection for the innovator’s financial and intellectual investment in their invention, branding and design.

Last week, we had a pleasure of hosting at Schulich, Rex Shoyama, Assistant Director of IP Osgoode and David Meurer, Senior Research Assistant at ArtMob. In our panel discussion, we quickly realized how much IP practice shares with innovation, entrepreneurship and almost any business practice today, the experience of being affected by the new, emerging technologies and cultural practices of the open source movement, social media, convergent media and participatory culture. The new disruptive technologies associated with the Web 2.0, cloud computing, peer to peer transfer, mp3, open source innovation model, etc, challenge the existing business models as much as they do the current Intellectual Property practice. Witness the well publicized struggles of the major music labels with the free for all attitudes of the young generation of music fans. The answers to these dilemmas lie as much in the knowledge of business and law, as they do in the understanding of the relationship between technology and cultural practices. Prompted by these new developments, both entrepreneurs and IP practitioners have a unique opportunity to be inspired to develop new business models and ways of thinking, which better reflect today’s social goals and values. As the International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property argues in their , “The twilight of Old IP does not signal the end of the importance of IP. We are entering a New IP era, in which IP is used to sustain and maintain collaborations and partnerships, so that knowledge gets to those who need it most to produce and disseminate new products and services”.

We believe that a continuing, vigorous exchange of ideas between our respective communities, focused on many common issues and outcomes can only enrich the discourse and benefit all concerned. In this spirit, we would like to encourage any Osgoode students and faculty, interested in Innovation & Design as strategic areas of inquiry, to contact me or my colleague Kelly Parke to get involved in our classes, discussions or our blog. You can reach us at: pzak@schulich.yorku.ca or kparke@yorku.ca.

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Given the essential role that entrepreneurs play in driving the economy,��there is no question that the creation of patent laws must take into account the protection of their interests. From a small business perspective, patents play a large role��not only in helping��protect their inventions from patent��infringement, but also in creating assets that can be readily assigned a value in the market. This valuation can then be used to either obtain investors or to negotiate an attractive buy-out price.

However, patents are a relatively costly and time-consuming exercise for small businesses, with arguably uncertain results. It has proven difficult in practice to readily implement a set of laws that is able to satisfy the interests of all parties.

The following seeks to understand, from a practical perspective, how entrepreneurs use and are affected by the patent system.

The report

This is the first comprehensive study conducted in the US, and it raises several notions that are well worth further investigation. The study covered 1332 startups across several high-growth industries, namely: biotech, medical devices, IT hardware, software, and internet technologies. In general, the respondents were the CEO, president or CTO of their respective companies.

The researchers primarily focused on the following questions:

• Why are startups applying for patents?
• How do these patents affect investment?
• How to startups avoid infringing patents held by third parties?
• How effective are their patent strategies?

Key findings

1. Venture-backed startups are significantly more inclined to hold patents / applications than the general population.

The Berkeley report noted that the inclination to hold patents is driven by a company’s business model, strategy, technology, or other factors, such as the cost of��patenting and subsequent enforcement. The results show that there is a clear differentiation between venture-backed firms and non-venture backed firms. In terms of the total number of patents, venture-backed startups held anywhere from approximately 1.7 to 4 times more patents.

These results may be skewed as it is uncertain whether venture funds are also providing patents. However, there is non-definitive evidence that point towards a relationship between the parties: Firms that seek venture-funding appear to be patenting more actively prior to the funding event (and for the purpose of securing��funding), and venture-capital investors appear much less willing to fund companies that hold no patents.

2. Industry is a strong influence on the incidence of startups holding patents

Not surprisingly, what industry a startup is in is a strong indicator of how many patents are obtained or applied for. In this study, the ‘medical related’ companies (biotechnology and medical devices) had on average a far larger number of patents compared to software / IT hardware / internet firms (an average of approximately 15 vs.2, respectively).

I would think that this is due to the nature and usage of the patents in these industries – it would appear that the ‘medical related’ companies are highly cognizant of the critical nature��of securing patent rights. As such, these companies are much more likely to use, and to see utility in using the patent system in the early stages.

“When you go into life sciences—and in reality, with any [bio-related technology] that you’re creating or acquiring—if it doesn’t have a reasonably strong patent, and if you don’t have the capability to expand the patent estate covering your technology and products, you are going to have complicating issues. [As a young company], you need to secure patents, and with the broadest claims and specifications that you can get.” – Venture firm partner

3. Patents may offer only weak incentives to engage in innovation

It is a bit of a surprise that there is a view that patents are offering only weak incentives in terms of innovation, given that a patent grants a virtual monopoly. Based on feedback collected in the report, the view has changed over time, perhaps due to infringement in international markets.

“Fifteen years ago, patents were probably very useful and offered a lot of protection. But not today. In fact, today they are not very valuable at all, and, even if I were to get a patent on my [updated technology], odds are that I would still find a copy for sale on the side of the road in China.” – Sole proprietor of a medical device company

However, for the patents that the startups did acquire or apply for, the single most important driver was the “first mover advantage”. This was the only appropriability strategy (among others such as secrecy, reverse engineering, complimentary assets) that was ranked between moderately important and very important on average by all companies. It is also important to note that patents were twice as important for product than process innovators.

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4. Patents play a key role in seeking investments

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This report noted a clear quantitative difference in terms of patents held and applied for by firms either with or those seeking venture capital funding. Several competing theories exist on the role that patents play when seeking investments: The first theory is that patents are serving as credible “quality signals” for startup investors that are often associated with future profits. Alternatively, there is also the theory that given the limited information that is generally associated with startup valuation (generally, startups have few assets and little to no operating history), patents provide a good basis to measure profitability. Finally, the patent portfolio of companies may serve as differentiators that help investors pick and choose the companies that are best suited to compliment their acquisition goals. The report findings are also consistent with studies showing that patenting plays a positive role in valuation during fundraising and upon exit for venture-backed firms.

“When doing deals, sometimes we only show our stack [of patents], and sometimes the other party wants to do a lot of due diligence on our individual patents. But we never fail to give a presentation of about one hour on them—patents play a huge role in securing investment.” – CEO of a biotechnology company

5. Some technology companies have deliberately chosen not to pursue patents

As such, all respondents were asked whether the last major technology innovation they did not patent was a product or a process (or not), and what reasons motivated their company’s decision not to patent. The results that came up included the belief that the technology is not patentable; the high costs associated with prosecuting and enforcing the patent; the perception that, with reverse engineering, patents may afford relatively weak protection; the fear of disclosure and the availability of other forms of protection.

The cost of getting a patent is the most common reason cited for not patenting a major technology. 10% of respondents listed cost as the only barrier to filing for a patent. Another of the survey questions revealed that the average out-of-pocket cost for a respondent firm to acquire its most recent patent was over $38,000. This may prove to bolster the first finding regarding venture capital-backed firms, given their access to a bigger pool of resources and/or legal expertise.

An important difference that was noted was that biotechnology companies are much more interested in non-disclosure (59% vs. 25%), and software companies more about cost (43% vs 64%).

“Startups often pay significantly more than incumbents to their prosecuting attorneys, because startups (1) tend to file for patents on inventions that are more important to the company’s core business model than large firms, (2) usually use outside instead of in-house counsel for�� patent prosecution; and (3) often have difficulty monitoring outside counsel to limit overall costs” - Executive at a venture-backed semiconductor firm

Further considerations

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Given a market recovery and the expected influx of capital from the various stimulus plans, can we expect entrepreneurs to be more inclined to pursue patent protection? Will the existing patent regime serve as an accelerator or impediment to the promotion of innovation?

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Eileen Fischer is a Professor of Marketing at the Schulich School of Business, 91��ɫ.

In both developed and developing countries, governments are interested in fostering entrepreneurial activity in their economies.�� And increasingly, public policy makers are distinguishing between supporting entrepreneurial activity versus supporting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) more broadly defined. ��Various types of ambitious and costly initiatives have been implemented with the goal of supporting entrepreneurial activity.�� These range from the creation of business incubators or science parks to the financing of entrepreneurial ventures by government backed programs to the fostering of business clusters. The efficacy of such programs for achieving entrepreneurial outcomes is yet to be determined:�� available evidence to date yields mixed findings in support of a link between many initiatives and entrepreneurial outcomes, and suggest that costs to taxpayers outweigh benefits. This raises the question of whether there are forms of government support that foster entrepreneurial performance, and that do so cost-effectively.�� The goal of is to consider whether business advisory services can be conducive to entrepreneurial outcomes, and whether they can be cost-effective.

Business advisory services (also often referred to as coaching) are one of the most ubiquitous and persistent forms of government support.�� Partially or fully publicly funded advisory services are continuously undertaken in nearly every developed country.�� Given how long many of these programs have been in existence, it is not surprising that most have their origins in public policy goals of supporting SMEs, rather in helping to foster entrepreneurial activity per se.�� This is reflected in the name and purported targets of programs in many countries.�� For example, in the United States, “Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) provide management assistance to current and prospective small businesses” (; italics added).�� The emergence of business advisory services targeted toward SMEs has been traced to the 1960s; the provision of such advising grew out of extension services provided by governments to farmers.

As public policy has shifted toward fostering entrepreneurial outcomes, the hope that publicly funded business advisory services can foster entrepreneurial performance (versus the partially overlapping goal of supporting SMEs) has become apparent.�� This is reflected in part in the target markets for such services.�� For example, the government of Ontario describes the target of its business advisory services as follows: “The Ontario government has Business Advisors in�� who provide consulting services to Ontario's innovative, SME growth firms” ().�� While SMEs are mentioned, it seems clear that in Ontario, at least, the emphasis is not on serving all SMEs, but rather on advising those that are oriented toward innovation and growth, that is, toward entrepreneurial outcomes.��

In the current study, our question is whether publicly funded advisory services can in fact help to foster entrepreneurial outcomes for businesses when they are targeted toward the subset of SMEs that are growth and innovation oriented. An equally important consideration is whether such services can be provided cost effectively.�� Based on a sample of 228 firms, of which 101 used business advisory services in the Province of Ontario, Canada, we examine the firm-level impact such services can have on sales growth, innovation, angel equity finance and alliances.�� We find services are positively associated with firms’ sales growth, patents, angel equity finance and alliances.�� We assess statistical and economic significance, and assess robustness to controls for the non-randomness of the firm’s matching with the business advisory service program, as well as endogeneity of advisors’ hours spent with firms, among other robustness checks.�� We find significant robustness of hours spent on sales and angel equity finance, but sensitivity of the effect of hours on patents and alliances after controlling for endogeneity.

The complete study can be downloaded from:

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