Ottawa has been championing a push for Canadian companies to file more patents, part of a broader strategy to strengthen the country's position in the global technology race. But critics argue that filing cabinets full of patents won't save Canada unless we fundamentally change how we use and commercialize intellectual property.
The concern is familiar to anyone who has watched Ottawa's tech ecosystem grow and then watched its best companies get acquired by American or foreign buyers. Canada produces world-class research and innovation, but converting that into durable domestic wealth, rather than a one-time acquisition payout, has proven persistently difficult.
The Financial Post analysis, authored by IP specialist Louis Carbonneau, argues that patents are a necessary but insufficient tool. What matters is the ability to enforce those patents, license them strategically, and build the kind of litigation muscle that large US and Chinese tech firms have developed over decades. Canadian companies, particularly small and mid-sized ones, often lack both the expertise and the capital to fight patent battles.
For Ottawa specifically, the stakes are high. The National Capital Region is home to a significant cluster of tech and AI companies, from Shopify's satellite offices to deep-tech startups emerging from Carleton and uOttawa, and the federal government has a direct interest in ensuring those companies can protect their innovations globally.
The Carleton University-affiliated Kanata North tech park alone employs tens of thousands of workers in IP-intensive industries. If those companies can't defend their innovations, they become acquisition targets rather than the anchor firms Ottawa needs.
"The question isn't how many patents we file," said one Ottawa-based IP lawyer. "It's whether we have a national strategy for using them to create lasting economic value rather than just making ourselves more attractive to foreign buyers."
Federal innovation officials say they are aware of the commercialization gap and are exploring new funding mechanisms to help Canadian firms better exploit their IP portfolios. But the gap between awareness and action remains wide.
