Invest Nova Scotia Workshop | Why Intellectual Property Matters: IP 101

November 21, 2023 | 9am-11am Virtual via Zoom

From protecting your business' name, logo, or slogan to the information on your website, internal information and other ideas including artistic creations, inventions, and innovations - Intellectual Property (IP) rights are very important and should matter to you and how you do business.

Invest Nova Scotia and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) invite you to join us for a two-hour virtual information session about getting started with intellectual property – IP 101 and IP Strategy. 

Learn "why intellectual property matters” on Tuesday, November 21, from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. AST. 

In this particular session, you will learn about various key aspects of an intellectual property (IP) strategy. 

Step 1 of 6 of your IP strategy is to identify what formal or informal IP rights you currently own. We’ll go over the 5 main ones during this presentation: trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents, and industrial designs. 

Step 2 is to identify what your competitors have. 

Steps 3 to 5 is from planning to implementation to bridge the gap between you and competitors. 

Step 6 is to repeat steps 1 to 5 regularly. An IP strategy also includes getting refreshers about IP rules and employee training about the importance of these rules, IP ownership and the importance of confidentiality during employment and post-employment. Atlantic Canada’s IP Advisor can assist in the employee training for this purpose, for example; free and unbiased.

We will go over different funding programs that exist to get a more detailed IP strategy from firms of IP professionals, and to assist in implementing this strategy with acquiring legal IP rights in Canada and outside Canada. A complete IP strategy includes advice and opinions based on a detailed analysis by IP professionals. However, to better prepare for meetings with IP professionals and to better understand IP advice and opinions, Atlantic Canada’s IP Advisor offers unlimited confidential 1-on-1 meetings. The client ultimately decides based on their IP professional’s recommendations and their ultimate understanding of IP. There are 1,000s of rules for each IP right, many of them complex or highly complex. There are numerous different kinds of IP strategies, depending on many factors.

CIPO has developed over 100 different learning products, from high level to more complex, to help explain in a more efficient ways many of these IP rules and strategies. The Atlantic Canada IP Advisor can help clients navigate through these 1,000s of pages of valuable resources and tools, while using different plain English ways to explain and illustrate these complex rules. Examples will be given during this presentation to demonstrate how we guide clients through these resources more efficiently, before they do more reading and come back with follow-up questions. There are 1,000s of pages because there are 1,000s of rules. There are 1,000s of rules because there have been many disputes among competitors over the years. Disputes over valuable rights and over alleged copying.

CIPO often guide clients at different stages of their journeys, from having an idea and doing R&D to going from pre-start-up, start-up to an established business. While CIPO always recommend that creators, inventors, and entrepreneurs hire IP professionals such as IP lawyers, registered patent agents and registered trademark agents, Atlantic Canada’s IP Advisor can continue educating clients and minimise the risk of some miscommunication or misunderstanding by offering different ways to explain and illustrate different rules and strategies. We can be part of the team to reinforce the understanding.

Finally, throughout the presentation, we will go over “why IP is important” from different angles, from legal to otherwise.

The session will cover 

1. What IP is 

2. How to identify your IP 

3. How to protect IP 

4. How to manage IP 

5. Where to find help 

And we will discuss the five different types of intellectual property (IP) rights: 

1. Trademarks

2. Copyrights

3. Industrial Designs

4. Trade Secrets

5. Patents

The session will also highlight the importance of having an IP strategy and adapting it over time.

Registration Fee: FREE

Registration Deadline: Friday, November 17, 2023.

Got questions? For more information, please contact:

Yuliya Demish, Export Development Executive
Invest Nova Scotia
yuliya.demish@investnovascotia.ca
902.221.5138