IAC Program

IP Funding

As an SME, you are often capital constrained. Your allocation of funds supports your business-critical infrastructure and R&D initiatives, while IP-specific spend is often put on the backburner. This is where IAC can help.

To help you scale your business, IAC offers two forms of funding to support IP development and growth:

The IAC Grant Programs – Here’s how it works:

With multiple submission rounds throughout the year, the IAC Grant Programs help you when and where you need it most.
IAC has three IP Grant programs available: for Full Members, Associate Members, and to tackle the inequitable gender balance in IP, IAC also has a grant for women-led companies. 
IAC’s Full Member Grant pool is $200K per round, with individual awards ranging from $5K – $20K.  
Associate Member and Women in IP Grant allocate a pool of $100K per round, with individual awards ranging from $5K-$10K.
Submissions for all of these grants are judged on your ability to demonstrate how you’re able to move your business strategy forward using IP.

IP credit – Here’s how it works:

Your IAC annual fee can be used right away as credit and/or reimbursement towards your IP spend, including services such as trademark prosecution, patent filing, drafting, IP consultation with law firms, or any software tools required to monitor existing IP.
This IP credit is designed to incentivize IP spend wherever you operate so is not limited to Canada; it can be used in international jurisdictions and with the service provider of your choice.  
We reimburse any money spent towards the IP Credit program, up to a maximum of the amount you pay to join IAC.

IP Protection, Secure and Deploy IP Rights

IAC’s Grant Programs

IAC offers three forms of grants to our members:

IAC Full Member Grant
IAC Associate Member Grant
IAC Grant for Women in IP, created in response to the demonstrated inequitable gender balance in the IP ecosystem. The funding is available to all IAC Members (Full or Associate) who self-identify as eligible and are in good standing with IAC.

Note: At IAC, when we say “woman” we mean cis and trans, two-spirited, non-binary, gender-diverse individuals, and anyone who chooses to identify as such.

Learn more

Evalution Criteria

At IAC, we believe that a good IP Strategy is incomplete until it involves a plan that supports a business’s ability to successfully commercialize innovation and drive revenue. IAC Grant submissions are judged on your ability to demonstrate how you’re able to move your business strategy forward using IP. 

We evaluate submissions on three primary conditions:  

Does the requested funding have alignment with the IP strategy of the organization? 
Does this request consider business impact on the company? 
Is there alignment with the IAC mandate advancing data driven cleantech SME patent portfolios, so the SMEs can remain competitive as they scale?

SEE MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS