Thank you.
This is a great question. I think that patents are not an end in themselves. Using patents as a measure of success of how we're doing in terms of commercializing research is not a good measure. As some people have already said, you can file a lot of patents, but if they just sit on the shelf, they're of no good to anyone.
I think the question is this: is the patent and intellectual property regime in Canada okay? It's probably okay, but we do need to make a level playing field, and I would encourage Canada to harmonize with the European system as much as it can, because I think it does in fact invite investment in terms of big companies coming in.
However, the issue I'm most interested in is how it affects the innovation piece, and that goes well beyond patents. We can have a patent, but if investment comes from the U.S. to take that intellectual property and create a company out of it, the first thing that's going to happen—and it has, and in some of our own companies that we have created—is that the company will be asked to go south of the border. We have to create an environment in which that does not happen, or happens less. There can be value in that, but it's not maximizing the value.
We need to create an innovation continuum that allows the intellectual property created in our academic institutions to remain in Canada and for Canadian companies to be created around that piece of intellectual property or, better still, to pool with others and create innovation and commercialization around that.
So how are we doing? We know that Canada has a problem with innovation. We're not creating the value, the new companies that we should be creating, and far too much of our intellectual property is going south of the border, with companies being created down there.
Now, that's a complex area for discussion, because it involves the VC mentality in Canada. We're risk-averse in Canada relative to others. Our VC community is not a specialized community; it's a generalist community. We need to change that. Also, we need to support the entrepreneur type of mentality in Canada, which is much more mature south of the border and in many other countries.
I think that patents are not an end in themselves. I think we need to look at the broader picture and nurture that innovation continuum, which currently is problematic in Canada.