Industry committee  Thank you very much for inviting McMaster University to participate in the standing committee's study on the effectiveness of the current intellectual property regime in Canada. I will be speaking from the perspective of our office that supports and services the research administration area of the university.

Industry committee  We file a provisional patent application in the U.S., partly because, as Scott said, there are times when professors come into our office and say that they're going to be presenting this in the next day, and so we have to file something quickly. Plus, it's just a very cost-effective way.

Industry committee  We file the original U.S. provisional application because it's a simpler process. I think there's a Canadian [Inaudible--Editor], but we just have that as our standard process. That part isn't reviewed, so in some ways it doesn't matter where that part is filed. When we enter the national phase, our evaluation of that depends on the market opportunity, where we think the potential licensees or market is going to be for that invention, and also just the cost of what that's going to be.

Industry committee  You mean for the provisional stage?

Industry committee  It's partly because a registered patent agent is the director of our office, so she's familiar with that process. That's part of the reason we do it.

Industry committee  I guess I should clarify. When we file a provisional patent application in the U.S., we're not saying we aren't going to file in Canada. It's just sort of a process mechanism to file in the U.S. first. It gives us 12 months to file a PCT. And then 18 months after that, we are able to say in which countries we will actually keep the patent alive.

Industry committee  No, that was it.