Thank you. Good morning.
My name is Ruth Corbin. I run an intellectual property research firm. I teach at Osgoode Hall Law School, in intellectual property. I'm a corporate director—you will see some of my remarks reflecting that background—and trained as a marketer. One of the reasons I raise that is because of the title of the presentation called “What's needed most is an IP State of Mind”. That's what I hope to leave you with today.
Remember when customer service was just something people spoke about? It took a whole reorientation of government and business until we understood what it meant to have excellent customer service and satisfied customers. It didn't happen just because we said it. That's what I'm proposing is needed, a reorientation of thinking, which I think individuals in the room can provide leadership for, and that is an IP state of mind for Canada that will allow us to take advantage of our most valuable economic resource.
The four themes I'm going to talk about are on this slide. I have six slides, and I hope to do them in six minutes. There are four things I want to talk about.
First of all, the best news is that extensive research is well in place, and it was sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada. It has taken over a year to complete, with extensive consultation with experts right across the country.
A second message is the need to change the conversation from the well-accepted innovation language to intellectual property, which you have heard about from my colleagues on the panel already.
The third creative suggestion I would invite government to think about is how to influence the culture of corporate governance in businesses. Government and business have been partners for a long time, yet surprisingly their intellectual property agendas are moving in different directions. It's quite interesting. They're not opposing directions, but ones that reflect a lack of vision for Canada.
Finally is a recommendation for government—if I have to leave you with something practical—and that is to exercise leadership through plain measurement: clear definitions and measurement of whether Canada is doing well or poorly and how our progress should be measured.
My first of four themes is to talk about the extensive research that is already available in the Conference Board report. I believe Monsieur Roy has distributed a copy of the executive summary, in which you will find the main themes. That report involved broad national consultation with experts and IP leaders, including every member of the panel represented here—Professor de Beer's colleague, actually....
For added credibility, it received an award of excellence for public policy impact from the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. It was selected by Industry Canada and featured at a joint meeting between OECD and Industry Canada. It was on the recommended list of Industry Canada's library and knowledge centre. I tell you that to assure you it has endorsements of credibility for the investment the Conference Board made a couple of years ago.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel. The report has a history of international treaties, legislative changes, statistical analysis, and on page 64 the current regime in intellectual property.
The biggest thing is that everybody loves to talk about innovation. They argue about whether Canada is good or not good at innovation, and what you find is that they are talking about different things. I have taken this quote out of Humpty Dumpty, and one of the big issues there was that Humpty Dumpty would use a word to mean whatever he wanted it to mean when he said it.
I've found in my year of research that's what's happening in Canada is all good. We're all talking about things we want to happen, but we're talking about different things. I'm recommending that the conversation shift from innovation to intellectual property. Innovation is our most precious national resource, but intellectual property is what it takes to manage, govern, and organize it.
The recommendation I want to leave you with today, subject to questions you may have, is that in addition to defining innovation and stopping the debates about what it means, who's good at it, and whether we're succeeding or not, what we seem to need in Canada is a measurement directorate.
I don't mean to sound bureaucratic. There's a well-known saying that you can't manage what you don't measure, but also you get what you measure. If the country is aware of where our priorities are, businesses and journalists will respond to talk about Canada's progression in those areas.
One of the biggest areas of weakness is corporate governance of businesses. You may think it's hands off when it comes to businesses: let businesses, especially at the director level, do what they need to do. Suprisingly, intellectual property monetization is not measured systematically at the board level, nor is it even taught in director colleges, nor is it advised by our main securities regulators. It's something government can do to support where our weakest link seems to exist, and that is at the business level.
Finally, through a program of clear measurement the Canadian government would connect more directly with international organizations for harmonized policy and competitiveness tracking. Organizations such as OECD and WIPO, which talk about Canada, whether we're there or not, rank Canada and enable us to talk to them in a consistent language of measurement. That is what we seem to need most.
Thank you for your attention.