Industry committee  We have the resources. Not doing the survey was not a question of not having the resources. It was more a question of the fact that we wanted to concentrate on the innovators with our round tables and get direct face-to-face information from them. We're not ruling out the possibility of doing a survey shortly after.

Industry committee  We have an outreach team who does that. In fact we've been speaking to most of the universities and the technically oriented colleges in Canada. We also have, with various IP associations, a speakers bureau type of approach. We have canned presentations, such as IP 101, and how to benefit from IP.

Industry committee  Different, not necessarily more, but different. We look at things differently than they do, and the amount of time it takes to process an application is also probably a whole lot more dependent on the administration, on how many people you have going through the applications. It's a question of efficiency and also a question of receiving applications that are requesting a whole lot more than they really should, and it takes seven iterations to bring you down to the invention.

Industry committee  First of all, CIPO is not a department. We're an agency of the Department of Industry. We are 100% user-fee based. I don't have a government appropriation.

Industry committee  You have to understand that the business folks who make the application also make the decision to wait. Clearly, in their business and their industry, it's beneficial to wait. It's not necessarily an impediment. There is a reason for that to happen. It could be that you may have a weak patent and you want to keep the patent pending as long as possible.

Industry committee  Since 2004.

Industry committee  They are set, yes. We go through Parliament to raise our fees. We are also a revolving fund, meaning that the fees are set so that we can, for a period of a few years, accumulate net income where at some point the costs will exceed the revenue. It's planned that way. We will burn the accumulated net income and then we will come back for another fee review a few years later.

Industry committee  Actually, what I said was that we have different tests that are based in law that we have to conduct. The law doesn't state that we take 49 months and they take 38.

Industry committee  I'll take a crack at that one. We have basically two types of applicants. We have those who are represented by a professional IP agent—who is typically a lawyer with an engineering background, if it's in the patent world—and we have unrepresented applicants. If you do hire a lawyer, as I mentioned before, the costs will vary, but $20,000 to $25,000 is likely in the range of what you're going to pay.

Industry committee  I'll be really quick, then. With respect to percentages of university holdings and whatnot, in terms of applications for this past year, three or four universities are among the top 20 applicants, and they probably totalled in number close to 70 applications out of the 36,000.

Industry committee  When you apply, you have 18 months during which we do not disclose your invention. I think you said we would disclose.

Industry committee  As soon as they apply.

Industry committee  You touched on a number of points. I will try to answer, and then we'll see—

Industry committee  When you file with us, for 18 months, although you disclose to us, we will not make it public. You're protected from that perspective, but at the 18-month point, we do make it public.

Industry committee  Right. The clock starts when they apply.