Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. As mentioned, my name is Grant Lynds. I'm the immediate past president of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada. Thanks very much for inviting IPIC to present to you its initial thoughts on Bill C-86 and to answer any questions

Finance committee  I guess I was just trying to make up time. IPIC represents the views of our IP professionals in making submissions to government and other bodies. Our activities include a wide breadth of activities in education, continuing professional development and raising IP awareness in th

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just going to wrap up and say that in many cases the code is created through bylaws and there are already several provisions in the legislation that provide for strong oversight by the minister, such as the majority of public seats on the college's boar

Finance committee  As soon as you need them, which is probably yesterday, I'm guessing.

Finance committee  Tomorrow, basically.

Finance committee  No. If we talk about patent or trademark agents, no, and as you can imagine, we're a pretty conservative profession. No, we don't have a history of bad behaviour at all. Our impetus, our motivation, for advocating for a college of this sort for 20-some years is to have a self-r

Finance committee  Sure. As a voluntary association, we're engaged in a lot of these activities already for our members, and we have been historically. Continuing professional education is a core part of what we do. The aspect of a college really embodies all of the professional education require

Finance committee  The code of ethics—

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. You have an act and you have legislation under an act. The college is composed in the act. You're going to have regulations under the legislation. Our view is that absolutely there should be a code of conduct or a code of ethics. We have one ourselves; it's volu

Finance committee  Yes. We have a wide breadth of committees, from organizing our annual conferences—the educational aspect—to committees that deal with litigation, a litigation committee. A wide breadth of areas of IP are embodied in committees that members join. We encourage members to join co

Finance committee  Yes. If they belong to bodies that require it, absolutely. Our courses are qualified. I know for sure, as a member of the Law Society of Ontario.... It depends on which courses they are, but yes, they can be qualified, and—

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  That's right. You're right, and—

Finance committee  You've got it. You have it.

Finance committee  Yes, there could be a grey area. It's pretty clear that if you're doing business before the patent or trademark office, you have to be, in those rules, set up as a patent agent or a trademark agent to represent a person before those offices, and those are the titles that are carr