Who owns the intellectual property and where? The case of Canadian biotechnology

Abstract

In this paper, we examine biotechnology innovation in Canada. We make a profile description of Canadian biotechnology in the 12 most important agglomerations in terms of patenting quality and quantity, the nature of biotechnology activities, the properties of the assignees and their propensity to collaborate. The analysis of patent-owning organisations reveals a crucial role of the publicly funded research in Canadian biotechnology. We identify and compare the importance of well developed intellectual property policies and functioning technology transfer offices at universities. We find evidence of only very little cooperation that would result in the co-assignment of the intellectual property among organisations.