Global IP Grants by Technology and Country, 2024

Canada’s Intellectual Property performance is pretty dismal. By nearly every measure, we underperform compared to our peer countries. We spend less on R&D as a share of GDP, run consistent deficits in revenue from licensing of IP, and turn less of our research into IP even though we spend more than most on R&D in educational institutions.

The complexity of our economy has fallen over time even as the complexity of our research capabilities and output continues to rank third in the world.

Even in Canada’s top 7 patenting industries, we fall below every country in the G7 but Italy when it comes to registering IP. The chart below breaks it down: Canada’s top IP producing industries include computer technology, medical technology, digital communications, transportation and others. In every industry we are in the bottom two or three of comparator countries.

To build economic sovereignty, Canada desperately needs a more robust IP strategy that converts publicly funded research into registered IP and helps Canadian companies retain and defend their IP in order to secure freedom to operate and enhance prosperity.

Check out The Canadian Shield Institute‘s full set of recommendations in Chapter 3 of Foundations of Digital Sovereignty – released yesterday. Read it here.