What should a successful IP Education Program look like?

1. Guiding principles:

a) What do we mean by IP knowledge?

There is an abundance of material that provides information about the various forms of IP , including patents. This is information that is easily accessed through publicly available sources like the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) or the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO).

However, the Expert Panel believes that a different type of curriculum is needed, albeit one that may well build from existing material. In our view, the material must resonate with the target audiences, must be easy to digest and must be readily accessible on demand. An IP education program must succeed at building greater confidence in the IP system among members of our target audience.

First, it is essential that the content be client-focused. This means that the program must be centred around the real-life experiences of Ontario innovators and academic researchers and the challenges they face in developing their IP portfolios and strategies. The governing principle must be on equipping them and their intermediaries to overcome these challenges.

Second, the program’s emphasis must be on the strategic uses of IP rather than merely on the mechanics of specific forms of IP.  IP strategic skills lie at the intersection of law and business. The content of the program must therefore adopt a multidisciplinary approach to IP strategy, involving legal experts, business experts and innovators from all IP domains (STEAM innovators – science, technology, engineering, arts and humanities and math).

This kind of IP knowledge will better equip all the groups within the innovation ecosystem with the capacity to make informed decisions about IP and how best to deploy IP to the benefit of Ontarians.

b) Legal expertise is essential.

Issues surrounding IP generation and commercialization require the guidance and advice of legal experts. There is no way around this. A company founder or a scientist who has had personal experience with patents can be an invaluable mentor but that individual is not a patent expert.

It is therefore critical that innovators, academic researchers and intermediaries are able to identify the appropriate IP legal experts to advise them. For example, for those working in STEM disciplines, where patents are generally the primary forms of protection, a registered patent agent or patent lawyer with requisite expertise will have to be involved. For those working in the realm of art and design, a lawyer with expertise in copyright law is essential.

This kind of IP knowledge will better equip the groups within the innovation ecosystem with the capacity to identify the right IP legal experts and to engage in sophisticated IP strategic discussions with them.

c) An independent process

The IP education program must be developed in an impartial and comprehensive manner. Due to institutional, industry and professional silos, no one group or institution can act alone to develop the appropriate curriculum. The process must ensure that oversight is given to a multidisciplinary and independent body of experts (honest brokers) who can determine the appropriate content and establish metrics for determining successful outcomes.

2. A two-step IP Education Program

Capacity-building in IP literacy and IP strategy across the system requires a two-level approach in step with the guiding principles outlined above:

1.) IP Basics: A web-based foundational IP education program to ensure that everyone within the ecosystem has the essential building blocks to achieve better IP commercialization outcomes and to develop basic IP strategies.

This foundational IP education program should, at minimum, ensure that participants:

  • Can identify key IP legal issues and prioritize them for follow-up with relevant experts.
  • Understand issues around public disclosure of inventions and global considerations (for example, differences with grace periods, non-disclosure agreements.)
  • Understand issues around freedom to operate.
  • Know when to seek expert legal advice, and from which experts (for example, IP lawyer, patent agent, and with the relevant technical background) and how to take charge of engagements with the relevant IP legal experts.
  • Know how to develop a basic IP strategy.
  • Can identify and seize IP commercialization opportunities as they arise.
  • Know how to negotiate IP agreements with third parties from a position of strength.
  • Recognize potential conflict of interest issues and know how to resolve them.

2) IP Advanced: An advanced, web-based, IP education program that explores such things as sophisticated strategies for company growth, negotiating license and other agreements to retain and extract maximal value from IP, strategies for resisting predatory/aggressive litigation tactics, and revenue generation in a global marketplace.

This program will assume that participants have a good grounding in learning outcomes 1-6 of the IP Basics program.

Building on IP Basics, IP Advanced will ensure that participants will be able to, at minimum:

  • Know when to seek expert legal advice, and from which experts (for example, IP lawyer, patent agent, and with the relevant technical background) and how to take charge of engagements with the relevant IPlegal experts, especially in sophisticated discussions around IP strategy in a global marketplace.
  • Know how to develop a sophisticated IP strategy for business growth including methods of insulating oneself from predatory competitors or frivolous lawsuits.
  • Know how to implement, monitor and adjust their IP strategy to meet changing environments or conditions.
  • Identify and seize IP commercialization opportunities as they arise.
  • Identify trends and best practices within the industry in which they operate.
  • Know how to negotiate complex IP agreements with third parties from a position of strength.

As part of recommendation implementation, working group(s) should determine the content, method of delivery and implementation of :

a) The IP Basics course in a manner that achieves the learning objectives and meets the guiding principles described above..

b)The IP Advanced course in a manner that achieves the learning objectives and meets the guiding principles described above.

And will be tasked with developing:

c) Metrics to ensure that the two IP programs are accomplishing their key objectives of raising literacy levels and strategic skills across the system and are achieving greater IP commercialization outcomes for the province.

d) A mechanism for regular review, update and adjustment of the IP Education Program.