Thank you.
Freedom to operate is what businesses in the innovation economy have to deal with. IP is a negative right. A patent allows you to prevent others from making, using or selling. It's not so much about protecting what you have come up with, though IP does protect your invention. You're building on the IP positions of other players. If the foundation or land is owned by big or major players, your freedom to operate is ultimately reduced. It's the ability to go out and commercialize your technology, recognizing that most IP granted—90% of patents—is for improvements to other people's positions. Because you don't own that underlying position, you don't have the freedom to operate. If 99% of the IP is already owned by other players, you have to manage that IP and reduce the risks that come with it.
That's freedom to operate. It's the lens that all policy in the innovation economy needs to use: Will this increase the freedom to operate of Canadian companies while also decreasing the freedom to operate of other global players?