Most patents filed by teams with at least one Canadian are assigned to international companies outside Canada, or their subsidiaries in the country. And, of those assigned to Canadians, a large portion are then sold to foreign firms. The results are from a study out Tuesday from the Institute for Research on Public Policy, a Montreal-based non-profit. (The Logic)

Talking point: The study is another example of Canada falling behind in patent ownership, despite the relatively high number of Canadian residents participating in creating new products. It notes that this could be because Canadians are less likely to commercialize their findings, instead opting to sell the intellectual property (IP) to foreign firms. This can be a challenge for smaller firms in the process of scaling up—not having rights to patents can become an obstacle when the IP they need for product development is held by larger companies, making them financially inaccessible to attain. The report recommends making the process of exploiting IP easier, such as by educating inventors on the advantages of patent ownership. The federal government has been taking measures to bolster IP ownership through initiatives like its IP strategy, but the report notes that more policies and incentives are needed. One part of the government’s plan has been to fund a patent collective that will help cleantech firms create and protect their IP, which my colleague Murad reported on earlier in August.