A new $300,000 grant from the Ontario government will better equip Osgoode students to thrive in the province’s burgeoning knowledge economy.
The funding from Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) will benefit the IP Innovation Clinic, Canada’s largest pro bono IP legal clinic and part of the law school’s comprehensive intellectual property and technology law program.
“With these resources, we can serve many more clients who do not have money to pay for expensive legal fees,” said Professor Pina D’Agostino, the founder and director of the IP Innovation Clinic. “We are also able to train many more law students to be IP and business savvy to protect key assets in the disruptive tech economy.
“The IPON funds,” she added, “will be invaluable to help scale the many successes of the IP Innovation Clinic working with Ontario’s startups.”
The grant will help create two new staff positions – an assistant director for the IP Innovation Clinic and a business development and commercialization manager for York University’s Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation (OVPRI). It will target researchers especially in the areas of artificial intelligence, automotive and medical technology.
The IP Innovation Clinic operates in collaboration with Innovation York, which also supports researchers. The Osgoode student volunteers who staff the clinic, known as Clinic Fellows, are supervised by lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Bereskin & Parr LLP and OWN Innovation. Guided by their lawyer mentors, Clinic Fellows provide legal information support to inventors, entrepreneurs and start-up companies and learn about common early-stage IP and business issues facing actors in the innovation ecosystem.
Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) is a provincial agency that provides IP support and services directly to clients and postsecondary institutions to help Ontario businesses and researchers innovate and grow.
In a written statement, Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop said this latest grant advances IPON’s mandate to provide Ontario post-secondary institutions and innovators with the funding, tools, knowledge and connections they need to harness the value of their IP.