Many aspects of your business involve intellectual property. Your idea, your invention, your products, your brand, your business methods are all key assets for your new business venture. Yet many start-ups don’t consider how to protect it or understand how to leverage its value for financing or growth.

IP is something that every start-up needs to consider as it develops its business strategy.

That’s why you need to understand the basics of intellectual property; including figuring out what IP you have, how you can leverage it and protect it.

IP can be complex, particularly if you need to formally protect it and develop an IP strategy; you will need to seek out expert advice and be aware of the potential costs.

Understand the basics of intellectual property

1. Take the time to understand the basics, and what the����are. They include:

• Patents, which protect inventions;
• Trademarks, which protect your brand;
• Industrial Design registrations, which protect your product’s unique appearance;
• Copyright, which protect original and creative works; and,
• Trade secrets, which protect your valuable business information, including methods, techniques and processes.

2. Learn how to identify and assess your intellectual property and what you need to protect.

Use this handy����to do an inventory of your intellectual property, and start formulating a plan.

3. Take a look around in the marketplace and at your competitors’ IP.

It is important to know what IP already exists and what competitors have, so that you can better focus your own efforts, targeting gaps in the marketplace and/or avoiding infringing on your competitors’ IP.

Leverage your IP to raise funds or add value

1. Learn how to leverage your intangible assets.

Your IP is a valuable business asset, and needs to be treated as such. Figure out what it is worth and how to generate more value from it.

2. Proper valuation of your IP is crucial to attract financing or venture capital.

It can also add value to your business through licensing and commercialization.

3. Protecting your IP, either through formal or informal means.

It will protect your business against competitors’ unauthorized use of your product/invention/brand/design/unique business methods.

4. Become known in the marketplace and expand to other markets.

It protects your investments as you grow. For example, it is essential to protect your IP in other countries where you plan on doing business��BEFORE��you enter these markets.

Develop an IP Strategy

As you develop your business plan, include an��.
It is basically a plan for how you will develop, grow, leverage and monetize your IP assets.

��DZ����Ƿ���; or use this handy��, developed by CIPO and the BDC.

Get expert help and understand the costs

• There are professionals and many resources available to help you determine what IP you have, whether it should be protected and how, and what costs it entails.

• ��such as Patent and Trademark agents and IP lawyers can provide you with strategic advice and assist in filing IP applications.

• Registering a trademark can be relatively straightforward, depending on the range of products and the markets you are entering. Most trademark registries, including Canada, don’t require applicants to be represented by a trademark lawyer. That being said, there are considerations, including similarity with existing trademarks, which class of goods and services your trademark will cover, and so on.

• For patents, it is generally recommended to hire an IP professional, such as a��. They provide you with knowledgeable advice on the best course of action to protect your invention, and have the expertise to draft and file your application, which generally requires specialized knowledge in patent law. Not all inventions are patentable, so it is important to assess this with the help of a professional, so that you can consider other strategies such as confidentiality agreements.

• Valuable business information such as trade secrets, need to be protected through non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements.

• There are various estimates of costs, depending on the complexity of your IP portfolio. There is an����on the costs of filing a patent in Canada and the US.

Written by Johanne Belisle, Former CEO of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and Member of the IP Osgoode Advisory Board

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As Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the (CIPO), I joined 13 other current and former Heads of IP Offices from around the world to explore the evolution of the IP system and future challenges and opportunities for IP Offices.

Our report identifies the key factors impacting the global IP system, notably the rise of the intangibles economy; the internationalization of the IP system; the speed of technological change and its increasingly interdisciplinary nature; and the growing importance of IP to innovation and trade policies worldwide.

From my perspective as the former CEO of CIPO, it is clear that IP Offices need to grow beyond the traditional role of IP administrators and become partners in their country’s innovation ecosystem. For example, over the past four years, CIPO has stepped out into the marketplace with a very active set of new programs for Canadian business and innovators to help them leverage their IP for export and growth. We did this through our IP Awareness and Education Program and by forming dozens of partnerships with business organizations, incubators, export development and financing agencies, IP Agents and others.

Canada is also now a full player in the global IP system, having implemented international IP treaties for Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Patents. The Government of Canada’s National IP Strategy is another important milestone to help Canada position itself well in an increasingly international IP system. And the recently launched is designed to help Canadian entrepreneurs protect their assets in an innovation economy.

I was struck with the similarities between our report as Heads of IP Offices and the two reports of the IP legal community. Not only did they see similar trends for the IP system, but they also noted the importance for IP practitioners to broaden their perspective beyond the legal and technical underpinnings of IP, and be equipped to provide their clients with broader strategic advice. ��

The of the In-House Practice of the Future Report makes the point, for example, that in-house trademark practice will evolve, and that ‘’the legal scope will expand to include other areas of IP and adjacent legal areas such as marketing and advertising law, digital issues including e-commerce, social media, privacy, and data protection as well as regulatory issues.”

Similarly, will increasingly become business partners to their clients who ‘’can be expected to develop into global players with a need for the global advice, speed, and flexibility on the part of their outside counsel’’.

There are many other interesting insights in these three reports, and I invite the IP Osgoode community to reflect on the implications for the future IP profession in Canada.

Written by Johanne Bélisle, who has recently completed her five-year mandate as CEO of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in September 2020 and was an active member of the IP Osgoode Advisory Board.

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