Egin Kongoli is an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s IP Intensive program.

When I was first assigned a utility provider as my placement for the Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive, I thought, “What does providing electricity have to do with intellectual property?” As I quickly learned, businesses that haven’t traditionally dealt with IP rights are facing a rising tide of related challenges as they seek to capitalize on new opportunities. Intellectual property directly supports Alectra Utility Corporation’s evolution from a distributor of electricity to a springboard for greater opportunities for their customers. While Alectra’s traditional role as a service provider still makes up most of its business, the provides new incentives to support innovative research and development. My internship at Alectra was spent on, among other things, the ongoing development of an intellectual property strategy to capture more value from the utility’s emerging collaborative business, along with consideration of its institutional business.

Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 requires a significant transformation of Ontario’s energy system. As a utility provider serving over a million Ontarians, Alectra is poised at the forefront of this project. Through the Green Energy & Technology Centre (GRE&T Centre), Alectra cultivates innovation by identifying, evaluating, and accelerating emerging clean-energy solutions. The work is cutting-edge, like 2021’s GridExchange Pilot, a transactive, blockchain-backed energy platform and marketplace. Through GridExchange, customers with energy assets like solar panels, battery storage, or electric vehicles can receive compensation and rewards for managing their energy use, such as . From municipalities to start-ups, many are eager to access utility data so that they might develop other innovative solutions. Proper strategy, governance, processes, policies and contracts are needed to ensure any IP creation resulting from the collaboration and any real upside potential can be shared with Alectra.

IP strategy determines a standard for how rights-based issues will be handled in the collaborative environment. Canadian universities have paved the way in this regard. Like Alectra, these institutions aim to serve the public interest through the fruits of intellectual inquiry by enabling and encouraging research and development. University IP policies vary, but they all grapple with similar legal issues such as disclosure, use, ownership, commercialization, and revenue sharing. As third-party members working with Alectra and the GRE&T Centre receive data alongside meaningful learning and experience, using personal information by third parties will require careful consideration of not just legal obligations but also Alectra’s reputation. Current privacy legislation dictates that corporations must obtain valid consent from the individual to collect, use or disclose their personal information. At the same time, the federal government’s newly proposed Bill C-27, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, weaves a web of exceptions to regulated practices that obfuscates oversight. For example, the CPPA excludes “anonymized data” from its purview, regardless of the ongoing debate on whether data can ever be de-identified without a remaining risk of re-identification. However, the proposed legislation permits the de-identification of data and the use of this material without the requisite knowledge or consent of the customer if the disclosure is made for “a socially beneficial purpose,” including the “protection of the environment.” By way of example, if Alectra or another utility discloses data to develop clean-energy infrastructure or energy-saving services, would it be excluded as a socially beneficial purpose? If a business anonymizes and aggregates its data sets, does this mean such disclosures are excluded entirely from regulatory oversight? Personal information must not be collected or used to influence an individual’s behaviour or decisions, but what if such a purpose is an alleged “socially beneficial” one?

My time at Alectra was illuminating. The work was not only related to intellectual property law but was also challenging and required endless inquiry to understand the nuanced interplay of laws and a business’s interests. From privacy to protecting against misappropriation, data practices demand multiple layers of legal and operational consideration. Whether through an NDA or an employment contract, a business’s dealings must reflect its IP strategy. Collaborative agreements must delineate contributions made by the company and benefits shared back. As , contractual measures must be taken to protect the data, but cannot be so strict as to dissuade collaboration. These challenges, and others unnamed here, offer exciting opportunities for lawyers working in the utility space as intellectual property law continues to fuel innovation.

The post Powering the Future: Insights on Energy Innovation from a Semester at Alectra (IP Intensive Reflection) appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Sally Yoon is an IPilogue Writer and a 2L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.

This article is part of a series covering the 5th Annual IP Data & Research Conference, hosted by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

, organized by the (“CIPO”) and the (“CIGI”), included a session on “Clean Technologies” about the status of Canada’s IP ownership and cleantech sector. The moderators were Joel Blit (professor of economics at the University of Waterloo and senior fellow at CIGI) and Rich Corken (deputy director of economics, research and evidence at ).

Trends and Challenges in Canada’s IP Ownership and a Collective’s Role in Addressing these Challenges

Mike Mclean (chief executive officer of the (“IAC”)), Emma Start (director of intellectual property at ), and Dan Herman (founder of and special advisor on the Establishment of a Centralized Resource Entity on the Intellectual Property) spoke about Canadian small-to-midsize enterprises’ (“SMEs”) role as significant economic drivers. They outlined some of the key challenges SMEs face in participating successfully in the IP ecosystem:

1. Cost and complexity: The cost of acquiring patents and the complexity of the international system deters companies from participating.
2. Lack of focus in IP education on strategy-linked business outcomes and commercial success: There are challenges in applying theoretical IP knowledge to real-life practical situations, which shows a need to provide SMEs with more “granular, case-study-based” education.
3. Limited talent capacity available: There is a limited talent capacity available to help businesses with their IP strategies and limited connectivity to institutions and existing expert players.
4. Limited tools for support: Companies require more support to bridge the gap from starting an IP program to having a self-sufficient IP system and operation. This is also critical for international commercialization.

The IAC is taking a collective approach to tackle these challenges. Their initiatives include building a collective patent portfolio and obtaining IP insurance at cost-effective rates for members, conducting market and patent research to inform strategy development, and providing businesses with IP software tools. Moreover, Intellectual Property Ontario, a board-governed agency set to begin operations later this year, will also work towards addressing the above four issues to help clients access the market.

Clean Technologies’ Economic Impact and Innovation

Nicholas Johnston (junior policy analyst in the Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector at ) and Mazahir Bhagat (data scientist in Business Improvement Services at CIPO) shared statistics on the Canadian cleantech sector and its activity in IP.

Overall, statistics showed that the cleantech sector is steadily growing and well-funded, with nearly all financing requests made by SMEs being approved in 2017. The sector was also active in IP—cleantech firms were most likely to participate in strategic activities related to IP, and enterprises in the sector showed more overall familiarity with IP than the average enterprise. Patent filing trends related to CO2 conversion and hydrogen production showed that Canadian inventions constituted about 1-2 percent, with the U.S., China, and Japan being the leaders. Businesses formed a significant chunk of the institutions filing the patents in Canada and globally, with interestingly high participation from the academic sector.

Patent Analytics on Hydrogen and Low Emission Technologies

Catriona Bruce (head of Patent Analytics Hub at ) looked at the patent filing of low emissions technology and hydrogen. Global patent data from showed that solar photovoltaic cells had the leading number of global patents filed, with most hydrogen patent filings being direct to production and utilization. China was the leading source of invention for both solar photovoltaic cells and inverter and hydrogen patents, as well as a leading target market. Interestingly, patents filed in China mostly stayed within the country; 17264 filings out of about 30000 hydrogen filings were from China, with only 809 from outside of the country. Relatively fewer inventions came from Canada and Australia, indicating further initiative for investment in domestic capability.

IP in Climate Transformative Technology Companies: The SDTC Approach

Amber Batool (vice president and chief of staff at (“SDTC”)) spoke about how SDTC enforces business leadership through mentorship. Its education programs frame advice for companies and address the issue that very few Canadian companies have the mature IP to compete or financial ability to keep up. have been mentors in education programs to frame advice for companies. SDTC’s approach to making an impact includes thought leadership, tailored IP strategies and learning pathways, and IP capacity creation. It plans to continue collaborating with others doing valuable work in this area to meet its clients’ changing IP needs.

Canada has the lowest labour productivity of the G7 and is the only G7 country whose R&D has gone down over the last 20 years. The panel discussions provided valuable insights into Canada's current position within the cleantech sector and the next steps necessary to achieve our national objectives for the environment and economy while maintaining a globally prominent position within the IP ecosystem.

The post Clean Technologies: Notes from the 5th Annual IP Data & Research Conference appeared first on IPOsgoode.

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Emily Xiang is an IPilogue Writer, the President of the Intellectual Property Society of Osgoode, and a 2L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Decommissioning is the Future

In the energy sector, decommissioning refers to the practice of dismantling energy installations at the end of their life cycles when they no longer satisfy required standards of safety, security, regulation, economic viability, ethical considerations, or environmental integrity. This process may also involve removing, recycling, remanufacturing, storing, or disposing of specific compounds. Nuclear energy, coal and gas-fired energy, and renewable energy are currently the facing decommissioning. For example, wind turbines typically have a lifespan of approximately . As the lifespan of first-generation turbines comes to an end, new decommissioning issues in the renewable energy sector is making room for new patent opportunities as well. In some countries, old turbine blades are being repurposed for their strength and stability to . Some are also being re-developed or re-applied to extract fiberglass and other reusable materials from old blades, with a view to recycle them for future use in new turbines.

Current Challenges with Decommissioning

Unfortunately, decommissioning existing energy infrastructures in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner comes with its fair share of challenges, many of which public and private stakeholders alike have overlooked. For instance, decommissioning policymakers will need to turn their minds to the , or the handling, transportation, reuse, recycling, and disposal of . The process of decommissioning is also sure to incur costs, but to execute their decommissioning projects effectively. There are also several associated with either restoring decommissioned sites to their original condition or preparing them for subsequent use. Moreover, the of many infrastructure sites raises logistical challenges concerning the mobilization of equipment and resources.��

Opportunities for Patents in the Decommissioning Sector

Patents form one avenue available to protect innovations that may address some of the current challenges related to decommissioning in the energy sector. Moreover, various mechanisms exist for expediting the application process for innovations that serve a particular purpose. For instance, , including an advanced examination of green technologies that help resolve or mitigate environmental impacts. Patent applicants that seek to address current environmental concerns with decommissioning may find themselves on a fast-tracked requisition course at no additional cost.��

However, the practice of regularly maintaining and renewing patents often comes with ongoing costs. Patent applicants and holders should be mindful of how their IP rights can be aligned with commercially profitable decommissioning activities worldwide to mitigate costs. , patent applications for inventions related to decommissioning may first be filed in countries such as Canada or the UK, where decommissioning activities are increasing and expedited avenues of examination for green technologies are currently available. Meanwhile, applications in other patenting jurisdictions in which energy infrastructures are still being developed or are still not yet nearing the end of their lifespans may be allowed to follow ordinary examination courses.��

Conclusion

��As older generation energy infrastructures near the end of their lifespans, the need for comprehensive decommissioning policies and novel innovations will only increase. Until recently, many of the challenges associated with decommissioning were , with stakeholder interests moreso focused on new builds or retrofit projects. Careful planning on the part of both operators and interested parties on the IP front will be essential in ensuring efficient and effective decommissioning projects.

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