We found a number of problems in the departments that we looked at. The general policy is to leave the property rights with the contractor. There are certain exceptions—property related to national security and property with a documented rationale stating that the crown should retain it. In over half the contracts we looked at, the crown was retaining the property rights without justification. There may be missed opportunities because the commercialization is not occurring.
With respect to internally generated intellectual property, we note that in spite of some significant expenditures in science and research in departments within government, there are very few inventions or patent rights being registered. I think it's probably a lack of attention. Perhaps we need to educate people on how to do it, or find a way to get government to pay more attention to this issue.