Law Times

Law times • SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 Expropriations Professional Appraisal Opinions - Trusted Values Find a professional real estate appraiser www.oaaic.on.ca 416-695-9333 Focus On INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY/TRADEMARK LAW Rosy prognosis for 'Silicon Valley North' in the city's technology sector, which all but imploded following mass layoffs seven years ago. Prior to 2001, Ottawa was Tech sector in Ottawa positioned for rebound O BY DARYL-LYNN CARLSON For Law Times ttawa intellectual prop- erty lawyers are an- ticipating a renaissance "In the 80s and 90s, they tend- ed to overlook the importance of branding but they're starting to look at that now. The big boys are very savvy about branding and this would be very good for the local-based market." In the current environment, dubbed Silicon Valley North and was home to more than 20 lead- ing technology companies, albeit mostly in the telecom sector. In just over a year, major players such as Nortel, JDS, Newbridge Technologies, and Mitel pulled out, resulting in upwards of 30,000 layoffs in a short time frame. But many of the technology in- novators employed by the major companies remained in the city, went on to launch their own enter- prises, and are attaining success. Currently there are upwards of 1,820 technology companies in the region, 80 per cent which have fewer than 50 employees and are successfully marketing their products globally, accord- ing to the Ottawa Centre for Re- search and Innovation. Recognizing the pending re- covery, the OCRI has launched a celebratory campaign called 82000reasons.com. "We're probably just about due for a resurgence in invest- ment across the board and we have that many more seasoned, high-tech entrepreneurs who've been both successful, and may- be not-so successful, but who have learned a lot from the past," says Michael Andrews, a partner at Andrews Robichaud LLP IP and business law firm. "The reality is that following the slowdown, there are a lot of very talented people here — some who are doing very well and some who didn't do so well, but who learned an awful lot." He says there are strong indica- tions the sector is positioned to re- bound and when it does, he expects the recovery will be more sustain- ing as entrepreneurs and investors take heed of lessons learned. "There are certainly a lot of inquiries on behalf of local entre- preneurs and they're getting more sophisticated and considering the brand side rather than just the technology side," says Andrews. many energetic technology companies are developing inno- vations and growing their opera- tions to a certain size, then seek- ing opportunities to be acquired by a global multinational. These serial entrepreneurs typically then launch another company and repeat the process. But in advising clients, Andrews says he encourages them to look at the big picture opportunities that could enable a home grown com- pany to map its own destiny. "Companies are recognizing they can develop home-based, IP- centric businesses and take them globally themselves," he says. "The more that these compa- nies make use of a combination of strategies of their own R&D and also align themselves with other IT rich companies and develop strate- gic joint ventures, it will help the Ottawa-based and domestic-based companies to get a toehold and reach a point in size where they can Michael Andrews says there are strong indications the technology sector is positioned to rebound, and when it does, he expects the recovery will be more sustaining. do more internationally." With the Canadian Intellectu- al Property Office headquartered in the city, along with the federal court, Ottawa has long been an IP hub, although the tech sector implosion of 2001 simply en- couraged law firms to turn their attention to global players. Andrews Robichaud has, for in- stance, been serving mostly inter- national clients with innovations in new media, entertainment, and consumer products and services in- bound for the Canadian market. "In serving not only locally based clients but also international companies, we're fortunate in that we're seeing how the rest of the world deals with this and is or- ganizing themselves" in terms of facilitating IP strategies, he says. Attendance to international confer- ences is integral to making contacts at law firms worldwide through which business can be expedited for clients; the number of participants to one international conference the firm attends has grown from 1,000 to more than 10,000 in the past several years, says Andrews. Randall Marusyk, a partner at Ottawa's MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP, agrees the resurgence should prove to be more stable. "We found when the boom was occurring there was a lot of silly money being thrown at projects and they ac- tually were not looking much at IP," says Marusyk. "We actually got more work after the bust be- cause people are looking for the best use for their IP dollars." In keeping with the prevailing trend of launching a company for acquisition, Marusyk says more of the fledgling businesses are paying more attention to IP details. "[It's] likely they're not going to get any further funding unless they have all their patent protec- tion," he says. It can take up- wards of three to five years for an entrepreneur to develop the tech- nology, and acquire the requisite IP licensing before an investor or larger company will consider it a promising venture, he says. "Investor interest is 50 per cent based on technology and proof of concept work and will it integrate into the larger organization, and 50 per cent of the value based on their patent portfolio," says Marusyk. "I would say most companies are funded now with much smart- er money and there is also very strategic use of the money spent on IP dollars and patent dollars." Much of the investment money or acquisitions are originating from outside of the country, he says. Marusyk adds that once the North American investment mar- ket rebounds, the city will be well positioned to flourish. "The sector is much more diverse now than just telecom," he acknowledges. "So there will be a lot of opportunity to spin-off companies locally." LT Search tool saves law firms time BY DARYL-LYNN CARLSON For Law Times A new technology has emerged that promises to make patent and business searches more time efficient, and also more thorough. SparkIP, an intellectual property and business research soft- ware company based in Atlanta, Ga., has introduced a new software platform that will return relevant search results that span a patent appli- cant's entire purview of possibilities, says SparkIP CEO Ed Trimble. "What we've done is unique," he says. "We've organized the information by the bottom up to create what we call a visual in- novation landscape. We've developed algorithms that cluster the world's patents and innovations. In these SparkClusters, some will deal with cancer research. Some will deal with clean tech energy in the entire innovation spectrum." Put simply, a lawyer whose client has a patent pending and wants to research its applications can use SparkIP's trademarked SparkClus- ters to retrieve information on any and all similar, registered patents worldwide, yet in a "map" style format that provides possibilities that are narrowed and relevant to the topic. Trimble provides as an example an industrial client that SparkIP recently worked with that wanted to search a pending patent. "We uploaded 60 patents that were related, but several of their patents showed up in a solar energy cluster, so they realized their technol- ogy had implications in solar energy," says Trimble. "That was an innovation that they were able to get with our tool in literally two minutes. "And they were excited and able to go on and explore other oppor- tunities for their technologies." Trimble says that scientists working with SparkIP developed the cluster tool to make it easier for law firms, businesses, research facili- ties, and governments to access a full complement of registered patent information to garner a better understanding of the gamut of applica- tions their innovation might have. "It's a time saver for law firms and it only takes that one cycle search to return what you might not find otherwise," he says. As well, "Law firms can use this as a business development tool. Instead of waiting for their clients to call to do a validation or patent report, they're able to go in and quickly landscape their client's intellec- tual property, where it's going, what competitors are doing, and where the marketplace is going," he says. "That way they can have a lot more of a strategic level conversation with clients." He notes that the United States Patent and Trademark Office issues more than 3,000 new patents a week. "We're in this world of information overload." The search tool is brand new; SparkIP launched a limited beta product last fall and just about six weeks ago released a subscription-based product. A "silver" subscription costs just $3,000 per year, while an enterprise "gold" subscription that would provide access for multiple persons within a law firm is also available. LT PAGE 9 www.lawtimesnews.com

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