Intellectual property rules rapped
Canada won’t benefit from stronger regulations, says Balsillie
TORONTO — BlackBerry Ltd. may own Canada’s most valuable patent portfolio, but former co-chief executive Jim Balsillie thinks policies designed to protect intellectual property do more harm than good.
Speaking at an intellectual property and innovation conference Tuesday hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a think-tank he founded, Balsillie urged the nation’s policy-makers to rethink their approach. Stronger intellectual property protections are mostly beneficial to countries that already have strong innovation and a stockpile of valuable patents — and Canada is not one of those countries, he said.
“Canada doesn’t own much intellectual property, so we continue to compete by lowering our dollar and our wages,” Balsillie said. “A truly frightening prospect, if you dare to think about it.”
Balsillie said three decades of strengthening intellectual property protections in Canada haven’t had the desired effect of boosting innovation and wealth. Research and development in the pharmaceutical industry is in decline, drug prices have increased to become some of the highest in the world and the country lacks a heavyweight technology company.
Global patent laws favour incumbents and make it very difficult for new entrepreneurs to break in, Balsillie said. He said he fears that will become even worse under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Canada signed in February.
“The TPP strengthens the U.S. regime and adds rigidity to that system, which results in slower innovation,” Balsillie said. “Canada needs an open debate with some real numbers attached before we jump in with both feet.”
China is much better prepared than Canada for the changes coming to the intellectual property economy, issuing close to one million patents each year, Balsillie said. “Are we ready for the world in which China transforms itself from a low-wage economy into a massive intellectual property force? I can tell you that Canada is not.”
Balsillie proposed Canada develop a national innovation strategy that’s distinct from our strategy on science and technology, focusing on commercializing Canadian ideas and selling them around the world. Working with other countries to develop trade agreements is all well and good, but we need to stop being duped into agreeing to protections that benefit our competitors, he said.
“We are creating legal and economic frameworks that are too rigid,” Balsillie said. “We need to get to a place where our prosperity strategies ensure that we are not fooled yet again.”