Canada had one of the lowest rankings for a first world country regarding intellectual property rights in a report released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Scoring 15th out of 38 countries in regards to issues like patent, copyright and trademark protections, enforcement and engagement in international treaties, Canada ranked lower than New Zealand, Singapore and Italy.
Bruce M. Green, an intellectual property lawyer with Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP, said the ranking is “disappointing.”
“(The ranking) puts Canada below Poland and Israel, whereas it should be up around the level of Australia, which is ranked number eight,” Green said.
He said the reason other countries such as Australia, the U.K. and the United States scored higher than Canada did is that those countries “have bigger government incentives for innovators which hasn’t been brought into place in Canada. But apparently the Liberal government is promising something along those lines.”
Green said the federal government’s Canadian Intellectual Property Office has taken a “less than helpful attitude” in terms of such things as creating new patents.
The study outlined how high rankings means economies with “robust” IP regimes are much more likely to attract both venture capital operations and private equity funding. The U.S. topped the ranking, followed by the U.K., Germany and France. There was a noted correlation between a high score in these countries and a large amount of research and development focused workforce.
Luca Citton, a lawyer at Boughton Law Corporation who focuses on corporate and commercial law, said volume and traffic within the local Intellectual Property rights industry has increased dramatically recently, especially in two specific fields.
“I get at least three or four calls a week from new start up ventures in the tech and life sciences field,” said Citton. “Whether or not there’s been a switch, all I’ve been seeing is an increase. All we’re seeing is a greater influx of calls and activity and more and more I see lawyers coming into this space, particularly in British Columbia in tech and life sciences that never were before. And if there’s this many people moving into the space, it’s got to say something.”
