Nuance is everything in this increasingly complex world. As a result, I have a slightly different view from that of @pcarrescia in this post and in his opinion piece in the @globeandmail (theglobeandmail.com/business…). First off, pursuing a patent is only an increasingly expensive tool that can only help to produce value when it is paired with an effective execution strategy. These are not either/or pursuits. They are AND! Secondly, in many marketplaces, patent protection is increasingly important to protect our freedom to operate from being blocked by those who have created a powerful combination of IP and systems to build or protect their market power, and to rent-free access. On a consumer and small business side, this can be seen in the high rents that so many now have to pay (e.g., to Amazon or Apple’s App Store, etc.) in order to access their market. In more technical fields it can entirely prevent market entry. Lastly, Mr. Carrescia’s focus on Canada’s ongoing failing in developing a capacity to exploit IP and create global business opportunities is right on the money. Our Senate Banking Committee focused on this last year and published a report in June 2023 (lnkd.in/eyHPydDb). We identified a lot of factors that our limiting Canada’s ability to compete in an increasingly digital and data-driven global economy. But the data point that is most troubling to me is our inability to protect and exploit IP discovered through Canadian-funded research at universities and government laboratories across our country. The 2020 report from AUTM identified that the ANNUAL royalties from the CUMULATIVE licensing of protected research from Canadian universities research over the previous six years averaged 1.3% of the ANNUAL research funding received by those universities. And we wonder why tricouncil grant, studentship and fellowship funding is not increasing. This was a major issue at NSERC and the MRC (later CIHR) more than 30 years ago and it plagues us still today. Our collection of programs haven’t moved the needle. When entrepreneurs fail to gain traction they must pivot. Governments need to do the same. As a country, we have got to become unrelenting in our fight to do a better job of protecting AND exploiting our world-beating research. If we don’t do it soon, our talent will increasingly migrate to where they can do it. Too many already are. #IPMatters #CompetitionMatters #DataMatters #EntrepreneurshipMatters #VCMatters