, Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, opened the event by highlighting the ’s success throughout its years in making IP information more accessible and elevating diverse voices in the IP and innovation space. Professor D’Agostino laid out the event agenda, introduced the exceptional team behind the , and the for the Launch Event.

Following Professor D’Agostino’s remarks, , Vice President of Research and Innovation at �첥��Ƶ, provided land acknowledgements and highlighted �첥��Ƶ’s commitment to welcoming diverse voices to the academic space. Dr. Asif echoed the importance of making credible IP knowledge more accessible through tools such as the IP Innovation Clinic ChatBot.

, Associate Director at Lab introduced , Co-Founder & CEO of . Nikita’s inspiring story of turning his vision into reality, with the help of the BEST Lab, the IP Osgoode Innovation Clinic, and the Schulich School of Business, is a testament to the remarkable achievements that are possible through collaboration. Nikita, alongside his partner at Skygauge Robotics, , used BEST Lab resources to invent and develop a drone which uses ultra-sound technology to inspect metal structures. aims to provide a safe, efficient, and cost-effective way to inspect metal structures. With the help of the IP Innovation Clinic, Nikita and Skygauge patented their invention.

After Nikita’s presentation, it was time for the demo. The ChatBot was developed through the efforts of , Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Senior Innovation Lawyer at Norton Rose, , JD Candidate and IP Innovation Clinic Coordinator, and at IP Osgoode. Al Hounsell provided a primer on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can be utilized to deliver legal information to clients, innovators, and entrepreneurs. The can be classified as a rules-and-pattern-based AI system because it derives its baseline system of rules from information fed to it by legal experts. The ChatBot gets “smarter” by identifying patterns in its users’ input. The ChatBot identifies two key components form these patterns: intents and entities. Intents are what the ChatBot users intend to derive from the questions they ask. Entities modify intents in an AI-based system. In the context of the ChatBot, as Ryan demonstrated in the demo, entities can be defined as the alternative ways in which a question can be asked. As a result, the more familiar the ChatBot becomes with different iterations of a question, the more intelligent and competent it becomes.

The final portion of the event was a thoughtful panel discussion moderated by Osgoode Hall Law School about navigating the IP and innovation ecosystem. The came from different sectors in the IP and innovation space. Each one brought a valuable perspective on the pressing IP and innovation issues that Canada and the world face, including economic growth, accessibility, and elevating diverse voices . A common theme running through the panel discussion was the importance of creating an inclusive and accessible environment for Canadian innovators of all backgrounds to flourish; and elevating voices from underserved communities who have been left out of the conversation for too long.

The deepened my understanding of how AI can easily, accessibly, and cost-effectively deliver information to users. Intellectual property assets are often a business’s first and most valuable assets, especially in its early stages. However, many innovators cannot access legal advice about their IP rights so early on in their business. I hope that free and user-friendly tools, such as the , can alleviate some of the barriers that currently halt innovation.

For more information and a full recording of the ChatBot Launch Event, click

Written by Bonnie Hassanzadeh, IPilogue Editor and Clinic Fellow at Osgoode Innovation Clinic.

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With Canadians' mounting frustration��and the dwindling prospects of exiting��this pandemic any time soon, it is vital that we unite as a nation to innovate. How Canada continues to respond to the pandemic will also define how we respond to future global challenges. Leading the development of new vaccines, more effective personal protective equipment, and new and improved systems��of distribution and administration of the vaccine are just some instances of what is necessary now. This pandemic has highlighted our societal inequalities and our fractured innovative landscape.

The university, one of Canada’s cradles of innovation, must continue to innovate out of this crisis and future crises. With innovation more critical than ever, how do we increase collaboration, coordination, and access to salient data and information during prolonged isolation?

Intellectual property (IP) is a powerful legal tool to foster innovation. It merits a context-specific approach on when, and whether, to protect assets from the inventor/ startup stage to the scale-up phase. However, COVID-19 has amplified the challenges faced by our brightest researchers and innovators. They are unable to access laboratories, have limited access to funds to start up a company, lack the know-how and support, and do not know where to go to obtain the needed help to protect their inventions. Under these conditions, IP can go undetected until it is too late. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights protecting valuable work are not well understood, and often never see the light of day. Finally, when IP is detected and advised to be protected, the innovation costs are prohibitive, starting with the patent pro- cess costing upwards of $20,000 to protect a single patent.

It is no wonder then how Canada, a country with so much talent and potential, is still playing catch up to other countries’ patent filings and, importantly, commercialization successes in the form of licensing deals, startups, and scale-ups from their own valuable IP.

As a response, closer partnerships between universities and industries��are becoming commonplace. Take as��an example the University of Oxford��and AstraZeneca trailblazing partnership to tackle the global pandemic with a COVID-19 vaccine. While these university-industry partnerships can help, they also risk a power imbalance between Canadian universities and multinational companies. There is no guarantee that Canadian jobs will be generated and retained in Canada, even though they may be founded on Canadian science and innovation.

Another promising mechanism is the use of university commercialization clinics such as the IP Innovation Clinic at �첥��Ƶ’s Osgoode Hall Law School. The clinic is the first of its kind, where law firms supervise law students who work directly with clients to formulate an IP strategy. This initiative accounts for more than 6,000 hours of pro-bono work, saving innovators close to $2-million to date during a nascent stage where resources are scarce.

One of the clinic’s success stories is Skygauge Robotics, a drone robotics company that landed a $3.3-million funding deal, and did so during a pandemic through the clinic’s support. Skygauge’s ambition is to build a company that keeps people innovating and working in Canada — a perfect example of how providing a friendly and supportive innovation ecosystem can be a game-changer to Canada’s innovation economy.

Seeing the need to continue innovating, especially during the pandemic, the IP Innovation Clinic, seized on the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI). Enter Isaac Pewton, the IP Innovation ChatBot that��can now answer any number of intellectual property questions. Powered by AI, the ChatBot learns and becomes smarter the more questions are asked of it. The goal is to balance the informational asymmetry in the innovation ecosystem and make valuable IP knowledge accessible to everyone for free.

This ChatBot is more important than ever to underrepresented communities, including women and Indigenous peoples who have typically not fared well in our in- novation ecosystem, and whose conditions are exacerbated from the pandemic. The ChatBot empowers these disenfranchised and remote communities with valuable information and direct access to the clinic for further services for free.

The ChatBot itself is an innovative example of a successful university-government-private partnership. Funded by Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada’s IP Clinics Program, pursuant to the federal government’s National IP Strategy and developed by a team of lawyers and technical experts at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, and Osgoode Hall Law School, the AI-powered ChatBot, by providing highly valuable IP information, can help Canadian entrepreneurs scale and learn quickly to innovate us out of this crisis and help future proof Canada against the next one.

Prof Giuseppina D’Agostino is a senior fellow with CIGI’s International Law Research Program (ILRP), effective November 2016. She is��the Founder & Director of IP Osgoode, the IP Intensive Program, and the Innovation Clinic, the Editor-in-Chief for the IPilogue and the Intellectual Property Journal, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Isaac has already garnered attention from some big names, as he was featured on Thursday's YFile Newsletter! Read what they had to say about him . And for a quick demonstration of how Isaac works, check out the video below:

You can find more information about the event, as well as full bios about our panelists, on our page.

Registration is still open until 11:30 am, so click to reserve your spot. In case you are not registered, or having some trouble with the Zoom link, the event will also be broadcast live on and will be available for viewing after the event ends.

We look forward to seeing you at 12:30 and hope you enjoy the show!

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