By Alexandra Reid
As usual, we covered a lot of ground last month on our blog. We wrote about the Startup Canada launch, introduced a new “born global” startup concept, discussed the future of accelerators, and explored how the Canadian university ‘innovation gap’ is more illusory than real. We championed the Montreal startup scene, envisioned what Ottawa should do to support entrepreneurship at home, and warned that VCs can sometimes be detrimental to young companies. These topics merely scratch the surface of our coverage.
In case you missed any of our posts, here’s a handy roundup:
May 2: Check your baggage at the door by Leo Valiquette
May 14: How to make better inventions: Part 1 by David French
May 22: How to make better inventions: Part 2 by David French
May 28: The ‘born global’ disruption by Tony Bailetti
May 29: Picking up the pieces from an R&D misadventure by Leo Valiquette
And on a related note…
In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics. Here are our other posts from May, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
May 8: Anything they can do you can do better: Competing in social media by Alexandra Reid
May 9: How I learned to stop worrying and love a blank page by Leo Valiquette
May 23: The worst small business social media marketing advice I’ve ever heard by Alexandra Reid
May 31: Canadian university ‘innovation gap’ more illusory than real: Kurman by Francis Moran
May 3: Lessons in entrepreneurship from the Startup Canada launch by Alexandra Reid
May 24: Montreal startup scene continues to rock by Francis Moran
May 15: Managing client expectations throughout an outsourced social media marketing program by Alexandra Reid
May 7: Five old school mistakes creeping into digital and social media planning by Rob Woyzbun
May 30: The future of startup accelerators by Ben Yoskovitz
May 16: The root of all evil by Leo Valiquette
May 18: Dealing with children and sensitive information online by Alexandra Reid
May 1: Why startups should build social media communities before they launch by Alexandra Reid
May 11: Three interesting developments in modern journalism by Francis Moran
Image: marcie scudder
By Francis Moran
I was invited a couple of weeks ago to facilitate a group discussion on the marketing of university technology transfer offices at a forum organised by the Technology Transfer Partnerships. The forum was held in conjunction with the Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery 2012 conference in Toronto. It was my first time at the OCE Discovery conference, and I was hugely impressed by the calibre of the presentations, the far-larger-than-expected scope of the exhibition and the superb opportunity for networking. It was a very busy two days.
The keynote speaker at the TTF forum, though, gave one of the more interesting and provocative sessions. Melba Kurman is a consultant, author and speaker who spends most of her time thinking about how universities can better commercialise their technology. I loved her presentation because it challenged and ultimately rejected the notion that Canadian universities are doing a much poorer job at commercialisation than their counterparts in the United States. As I have written before, I am utterly tired of the hackneyed tropes that Canadians don’t innovate as well as Americans, don’t take risks like Americans, and aren’t as successful as Americans. Kurman had me hooked at the very outset of her presentation when she suggested that an American lens is the wrong perspective through which to view what’s happening on Canadian campuses. Canada is doing its own thing, Kurman said, and doing it rather well.
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By David French
This is the conclusion of a two-part series. Part one introduced patent searching and how inventors can use the “prior art wall” to their advantage.
Whether or not a prefiling patent novelty search establishes that the road is clear for you to attempt to obtain patent rights, there is tremendous value to be obtained by just carrying out the search. In my last post, I explored this premise and started down the path to demonstrate how you can conduct a search of documents that are online at the U.S. Patent Office.
To recap, I shared tips for searching with key words using this page on the U.S. PTO website. As an example, the search was focused on an improved garden rake. Documents relating to rakes were located by initially entering the words “rake” and “handle.” I also suggested that searching can be conducted using the classification system available in the U.S. PTO website, which is what I will explain here today.
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By Leo Valiquette
Back in November, Peter Hanschke blogged about the need for the lean and mean startup to beware the million-dollar cheque. In that spirit, I have an anecdote to share which illustrates that the mere prospect of such a windfall can also do significant damage.
At a time when early-stage ventures, particularly those in Canada, are thirsting for capital, be it traditional VC or an angel round, it may seem counterintuitive to suggest that a startup should be wary of a nice fat cheque.
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By David French
This is part one of a two part series. Part two will be published next week.
I recently had an extended discussion with someone which resulted in the conclusion that there is more to patenting than just getting patents. We started with a discussion of the business value of a patent and then addressed the business value of patenting. Here is the concept.
If you are going to start the patenting process, it is absolutely essential that you do some searching. Searching is essential because you can only patent an aspect of your own idea that is new. There is no point in filing a patent application if you cannot identify a feature that is new. So a patent novelty search is about searching for bad news: defining the boundaries of the forbidden territory that you cannot claim because it is delimited by the “Prior Art Wall.”
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