An Examination of Intellectual Property Transfers to Third Party Entities at Publicly Funded Canadian Universities

Canadian universities make important contributions to public knowledge through their research efforts and the dissemination of their findings. Often, university researchers collaborate with partners in industry to achieve mutually beneficial goals. However, there is no cohesive federal policy for how these partnerships are negotiated, despite the risk of losing research and intellectual property from publicly funded universities to third-party entities. Intellectual property (IP) and espionage are both key concepts in the issue of ensuring university research is used for the benefit of Canadians, and not for the benefit of foreign entities. Intellectual property is any ideas generated that can lead to a new invention, process or improvement of a current system. IP developed for industrial purposes is the focus of this capstone. Protecting IP is an important component of economic success for a nation, and espionage can be the cause of lost IP. There is evidence that some research partnerships undertaken between Canadian universities and third-party entities are acts of economic and industrial espionage. Canada lacks a strong legal structure to combat theft of intellectual property, despite the thefts resulting in billions of dollars lost every year. Research partnerships between universities and third parties are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, and often result in the third-party retaining the intellectual property rights. There are several recorded cases of Canadian researchers developing new products or processes, but the innovations end up with an American or Chinese based company. NSERC Alliance grants have weak criteria that can result in federally funded research benefitting foreign actors instead of benefiting Canadians. There are several different models of intellectual property policies at Canadian universities. The University of Waterloo is considered one of Canada’s most innovative universities, and it employs a creator-owned model in which the creator of IP owns the rights. The University of Calgary employs the same model, albeit with a revenue-sharing clause if the IP was developed using university resources. The University of Toronto utilizes a hybrid IP model, in which the creator or the university can own the IP. In all three cases, the IP as a result of a partnership with a third party is negotiated separate from the university intellectual property policy, a practice which can result in IP losses for Canada. There is no easy fix for the problems identified by this capstone. However, increased awareness of the problem can hopefully bring heightened urgency to federal policymakers to enact changes. Stronger requirements for Alliance grants, a nation-wide policy of creator-owned IP at universities, and stricter requirements for export permits from Global Affairs Canada for research involving dual-use technologies are all possible changes that could allow Canadians to see more benefit from IP developed from publicly funded university research.

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