Industry committee  We have not filed for provisional patents. I'm not sure we would have a position on it one way or the other. We know they're out there. They can be a place holder. For those of you who don't know about provisional patents, you can file a paper saying you have a great idea and if you're clear enough with the specification, a year later you can file the actual claims of a patent and you would get the priority date on which the provisional patent was filed.

Industry committee  In a perfect world, if we didn't have that 800-pound gorilla to the south, I would suggest there would be a huge role. It would be wonderful if the Canadian Intellectual Property Office could have a simplified filing approach, if maybe they could hold the hand of a start-up and tell them how to do it.

Industry committee  It could be doing more than what it's doing now. For example, I know our company takes advantage of SR and ED as much as we can. We heard the other night on some U.S. debate how attractive our Canadian corporate tax rate is. I think universities can play a large role in encouraging innovation.

Industry committee  Yes, and it was distracting for the organization. The U.S. judicial system is so dependent on depositions, documents and so forth. We had to produce all of our senior leadership at one time or another for one or more depositions. Every deposition takes time to prepare. There was document reviewing as well.

Industry committee  Our market share has increased. Their market share, we believe, has decreased. We used to be able to get a lot more information when they were public, of course. Now they're in the same position that we are; we're not public. Our market share has increased against Blackboard's.

Industry committee  Blackboard Inc. is still in business. Interestingly, within the last several months, they have had a layoff of about 200 people. They had been publicly traded. They went private about eight months ago, I think. Yes, they are still in business.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  It would definitely be both. Let me be clear. We do not ignore the Canadian patent system or the trademark system. With trademarks, for example, it is our standard practice to file both in the U.S. and Canada at the same time, always. We want trademark protection in both places.

Industry committee  In Canada, the estimate would have been about $500,000, and in the U.S. I think we ended up spending a little over $10 million.

Industry committee  That is a very difficult question to answer. Again, John and I were talking about this yesterday. He was speculating that perhaps the government could fund initial patent applications for start-ups as a concrete example. That is one way. Education, education, education. We have to make sure that young entrepreneurs, and older entrepreneurs for that matter, are aware of what can happen.

Industry committee  When the litigation started, some of the people in the company said that we should get the Canadian government to help us. We quickly learned that we were on our own. There was no such person in the Canadian system we could identify who could give us some help. I think that may be a good suggestion, to have somebody to call to ask what we do now.

Industry committee  The company's position is that software business method patents don't help innovation. They are used more in business wars than to truly protect something that is unique and novel. One of my favourite things about Canada is the Robertson screw. A software patent is not a Robertson screw that should be entitled to protection by the government.

Industry committee  Eventually....

Industry committee  That's a question we discuss internally to some degree. Looking back on it, I think we would have been wiser in estimating the fees and costs. I don't know how you would do that, and I'm a lawyer and I'm used to doing stuff like that. Personally, I would have had more serious talks with John and others in leadership about the long slog U.S. litigation can provoke.

Industry committee  John, by the way, sends his regrets. I know he would have loved to be here today. He and I talked about that yesterday. I asked him what we could have done differently. I think the only possible difference would have been if we had had some patents in our defensive portfolio. That's a pretty common strategy by a lot of companies these days.