Industry committee  I think the duration is adequate. Technology changes now very quickly. We've had some patents expire that have been there for 20 years, and the technology changed so much that we had new patents that were done five or eight years ago to protect the next product. The cycle is beco

Industry committee  We look at whether there is a renowned expertise in the university in the area and direction that we're going. In this case, we're a microwave equipment supplier to the satellite industry, so we look at where the university has built up an area of expertise. Are they renowned f

Industry committee  I would definitely love to have it shorter, because the patent lawyers cost me a fortune. I think we are struggling with the length of time it takes. It does eat up a lot of resources and time. It is cumbersome. However, that stated, it is becoming very difficult, because the n

Industry committee  I'm not directly involved in the project itself and how the funds are allocated. I understand there are some funds still, but I echo Maryse's comments that it is difficult when you have large government procurement. You staff up, and if the funds are of a sudden put on hold or de

Industry committee  I can comment that we're making advances in signal processing technology that goes on board, so you can actually get maybe better resolution, more data, better pictures of ships and so on, and better determination of the scene you're looking at. There have been advancements, bu

Industry committee  I think it's a policy at the top level. For example, at the University of Waterloo the IP is owned by the researcher or researchers, and in this case it could be Ph.D. students as well. Other universities that I've dealt with, such as York, have a central office I deal with. The

Industry committee  As an example, I actually am licensing patents from CRC. We also looked at some technology in patents being developed at NRC. We are looking at collaborative models utilizing those research institutions because we cannot do it all internally. I think there does need to be a mod

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  In brief, our company thinks that SR and ED is a single tool that helps all companies, regardless of what they do. You're not going into a specific fund like the green tech fund, which is only supporting the green companies. We think it's a great tool for all Canadians to utili

Industry committee  Yes, we are.

Industry committee  Over the year, we generally have an overall development budget. That includes R and D and non-recurring engineering. It's in the range of $20 million to $30 million per year, so we are fairly active in that area. We are a $200 million company, or in that neighbourhood, so we are

Industry committee  Actually, in the business we started, the government is the first purchaser of the product. They are using it and developing it, and it is helping tremendously to have the government adopt it internally. It is very important if our own government adopts it and validates the produ

Industry committee  Actually, we have just recently, because we are looking for R and D participation dollars, put in an application for the CICP program. We haven't had experience with it yet, but we are hoping that is a source of funds we could utilize to improve our competitiveness and push our I

Industry committee  I think IRAP is a good program, and from what I remember in the reports, it can be supported more widely. I am thinking on all of these that the timing is very important. We have to make these funds accessible, and quickly. Timing is one of the things that drives the market ver

Industry committee  Patents are one of the ways in which you can protect your IP. There are a number of other factors you have to consider—the size of the business, whether it is a process or software, whether it could be copyright. There are other protections for that. Otherwise you might want to j