Industry committee  I will be sharing that with Mr. Gérin.

Industry committee  Thank you, Michel. I'm speaking from the perspective of an intellectual property practitioner. I am a lawyer certified as a specialist by the Law Society of Upper Canada. I was registered as a patent agent and a trademark agent in both the Canadian Intellectual Property Office

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Industry committee  I think the courts are the authority when it comes to this. Parties that are prepared to spend that kind of money and that have unresolvable disputes they can't deal with by alternative resolution methods will have to resort to the courts. So with or without a specialized court,

Industry committee  I agree completely in all cases here. I think one of the problems with harmonization of laws for obtaining patents, trademark registrations, and so on is that the courts do react so differently, but it is up to the private individual to decide where to commence the lawsuit, and

Industry committee  I believe it would. There are two levels of rectification: there is rectification for unintentional abandonment, and rectification for unavoidable abandonment. And to my understanding--I'm not a U.S. attorney--as long as there is a bona fide intent and attempt to renew patents o

Industry committee  We will provide information on that to the committee.

Industry committee  Well, it's an extremely difficult thing to do, because it's a very involved area. With patents, certain things have to be done in order to ensure, as has been said here before, that the rights holder gets the rights commensurate with what they've actually created, so it's a diffi

Industry committee  I can just add that I think an equilibrium would have to be reached, because without the innovators there would be no work for the lawyers.

Industry committee  I think it's something that could be looked at, but you'd have to appreciate that if there are restrictions on the sale of a piece of property, the value of the property is diminished simply by virtue of the restrictions.

Industry committee  I think part of the issue is that it's an extremely complex area. I think I read that on Thursday somebody used the terminology of drinking from a fire hydrant. We have to focus the discussion on the uses, advantages, and bottom-line benefits of intellectual property to the bus

Industry committee  My understanding is that innovation leads to jobs, so incentivize innovation every single way you can. Liberally grant rights and patents and trademarks. As long as they're well deserved there should be no reason not to grant these things. And they should be funded. They should b

Industry committee  I think one of the most important things is to have skilled and experienced examiners at the patent and trademark office and in the profession, the intellectual property profession, to ensure that we both have the same notion of what is patentable or what is registerable as a tra

Industry committee  I'm not sure what safeguards are in place. I think the industrial research assistance program has certain conditions on the use and ownership of funded intellectual property. But I have to say that in this context the intellectual property is much more key, because you're talking

Industry committee  I think they're good recommendations. There's certainty validity to a lot of them. There has to be a balance. Everything about this is balance. Implementing recommendations creates a push on one side—say on the brand-name side—that has to be somehow countered with the ability not