Workshop helps those with a flair for innovating and inventing

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Biotechnology is a field on the cutting edge, with research and development continually leading to new products, new innovations and new applications.

Because of the many discoveries that originate in the biotech industry, the management and protection of intellectual property, or IP, is an important consideration. Otherwise, months and years of hard work could be scooped up and taken to market by someone who had little or nothing to do with the actual find.

This challenge that constantly faces innovators is the reason Ag-West Bio Inc. organized the Intellectual Property Management Workshop, taking place May 14 in Saskatoon.

“The intent of the workshop is to provide practical strategies for knowledge-based companies in protecting and extracting value from their intellectual property, be it patents, trademarks, trade secrets, market knowledge or internal processes,” said Jazmin Bolanos, Project Co-ordinator with Ag-West Bio.

Bolanos says the workshop is relevant to a wide range of stakeholders, from financial professionals such as senior executives and venture capital managers, to entrepreneurs and business people actively involved in the commercialization of new technology, to the researchers and inventors responsible for the discoveries.

With considerable innovation currently taking place in the agricultural industry, Bolanos suggested the seminar may be of particular interest to this sector. “The workshop will provide practical intellectual property strategies for value-added agriculture businesses, with specific examples from actual Saskatchewan agri-businesses,” she stated.

Some of the brightest innovations in agriculture come right from the hands that work the soil. As a result, even the average producer with a penchant for inventing new devices to make life easier on the farm or the field might find a lot of benefit from attending the session.

The workshop will be conducted by Dan Polonenko, a Patent Agent with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, considered to be one of Canada’s leading law firms in this area.

Polonenko has 20 years of experience in the Canadian biotech industry, including more than seven at the corporate executive level. In addition to authoring a wide array of scientific papers and co-inventing four issued patent families, he has provided extensive intellectual property expertise and knowledge to a variety of organizations.

Among the important questions that will be examined in the workshop are: What is the role, value and usefulness of IP? How does it give an organization a competitive advantage? How should IP be licensed?

Registration for the Intellectual Property Management Workshop is $70 for Ag-West Bio members and $75 for non-members. Registration forms and additional information on the full-day session can be obtained online at www.agwest.sk.ca, or by calling (306) 975-1939.

For more information, contact:
Jazmin Bolanos, Project Co-ordinator
Ag-West Bio Inc.
Phone: (306) 668-2659
E-mail: jazmin.bolanos@agwest.sk.ca