The Progressive Conservative government published a regulation establishing Intellectual Property Ontario (IPO) on Tuesday. It will provide client firms with advice about IP trends and issues; conduct prior art searches on their behalf; and fund them to protect and commercialize inventions by, for example, playing for lawyers and patent agents. The Globe and Mail first reported the regulation. (The Logic, The Globe and Mail)

Talking point: Creating the agency is the next step in a process the province began in May 2019, when it appointed a panel led by Jim Balsillie to study how successful publicly-funded post-secondary institutions, accelerator and incubators were at helping turn ideas into revenue-generating products. Not very, the panel concluded in February 2020, calling for a new curriculum to help firms and researchers learn to develop and license IP. In July, the province tasked the group with implementing its report, on a two-year timeline. The new agency is meant to create that knowledge base and work with universities to increase their commercialization capacity.