Technology Commercialization

Technology commercialization starts with the invention or creation of something marketable – a new device, a tool, an algorithm, a software application.

Before you start to commercialize it, one of the first questions is: Who owns it? If an employee invents something marketable, employers will commonly claim that they own their employee’s invention.  However, in the case of patentable inventions, the Canadian Patent Act is silent on the question of whether an employer has any rights to an invention created by an employee. To the contrary, there is a presumption under Canadian law that an employee is the owner of his or her inventions, unless there is an express contract to the contrary, or the person was employed for the express purpose of inventing or innovating. The case of Techform Products Ltd. v. Wolda provides an interesting review of these issues, in a situation where the employer was ultimately found to have no rights to a valuable patented invention that was created for its business. 

I will be speaking today at UTI‘s Technology Commercialization Series: Commercialization Pitfalls: How to Avoid Them to review ownership issues.   

Calgary – 10:00 MT

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