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.

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a) 2021 Economic Reality of Climate Tech in view of IP and Data

and a hotbed for Canadian entrepreneurs in cleantech innovation. Cleantech overlaps with many industries and generates opportunities to disrupt the market in climate change mitigation technologies (CCMT), applied material, green chemistries, green technologies, electric vehicles, low carbon and net zero buildings, recycling and renewable technologies, and photovoltaic energy sectors. At the Conference, Leah Lawrence quoted that Cleantech is outpacing other industries, including the artificial intelligence sector. In Ontario, the electric power generation, transmission and distribution sector, inclusive of new cleantech energy storage companies, such as NRStor and Hydrostor, has seen a . However, it is captivating that the growth of these sectors largely relies upon the collection of datasets. The term “data” is omnipresent in patent claims across sectors, globally and in Canada. A clean tech company, Semios, has created a crop harvest remote control which assesses and optimises bugs’ and insects’ responses, diseases, and plant health conditions in actual time through data collection and predictive analysis. It disrupts and eliminates insect pheromone mating using wireless networks in the most difficult of plantation environments. This project was sponsored in part by the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). SDTC has contributed significant work towards the Government’s vision of a clean & green economy. 

b) Growth Strategies in the Clean Technology Patent Landscape & Innovation Assets Collective (Canada’s Patent Collective)

For entrepreneurs to gain some monopoly over their inventions and innovations and disrupt the cleantech space, it is crucial for them to understand the primary importance of “commercialisation” and “freedom to operate” in the world. In Canada, only 7.7 % of active assets patent filing are Canadian owned inventions. Most of Canada’s patent owners are from the United States (37%), Japan, Germany, and France (each at ~8%), which is alarming. In view of this, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has created many pilot programs to incentivise entrepreneurs to promote and support their clean technology inventions and innovation. CIPO has expedited patent examination services for Cleantech innovators. Moreover, they have partnered with the WIPO Green network, a marketplace platform, to build commercial relationships with cleantech entrepreneurs and customers. They also created an Intellectual Property (IP) analytic database via CCMT and (IAC). This initiative intends to support Canada’s data driven clean energy industry to foster its IP growth, generate value, build influence in the global market, and increase its rights in IP infringement suits. The major hindrance for cleantech entrepreneurs is funding to research and develop the invention. However, STDC and IAC offer many creative support systems and have generated IP Hedge funds, IP Credits, and merit-based awards for companies. Further, to mitigate the freedom to operate challenge, the IAC has fashioned an IP intelligence & prior art library to have a collective aspect which will consequently protect them from low quality patent assertions, navigate through patent pooling by acquiring third party rights, and working around having a landscape to operate freely without the deterrence of litigation.

c) What will be the implications of the “tech” in cleantech?

The suggest 850 Canadian firms have engaged with the clean technology sector. Hence, the implication of “tech” in cleantech is a pertinent discussion which usually arises from commoditisation, standardisation, globalisation, and market competitors. While conducting their due diligence, investors primarily emphasize and question potential companies about “whether there is any IP owned”, “how many IP” and “whether they are protected or disclosed widely”. Further, they also prefer Canadian companies for many reasons. While Canada has been a hub and spoke for among many other sectors, its strongest pursuit has not been cleantech so far i.e. solar plants or telecommunication sector, Mike Andrade, CEO of Morgan Solar, advised that the cleantech present or potential entrepreneur/innovators should be aware of the cautionary tales in the market and their IP rights. 

In conclusion, the good news is that support from the government, CIPO, and other institutions can help Canadian entrepreneurs to better manage their IP portfolios and invest in the cleantech market. Canada’s commitment to accelerate its reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by will forge many opportunities for cleantech SMEs and large entrepreneurs.

Written by Aishwerya Kansal, IPilogue Contributor. Aishwerya is pursuing Master’s in Law in International Business Laws at Osgoode Hall Law School, and she is also an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow.

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Leading the six-member Committee is IP Osgoode's founder & director, Prof. Pina D'Agostino, who is currently a Director of Alectra Inc.'s Board of Directors.

Click to read the full press release.

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