How ElevateIP Alberta is supporting the evolution of intellectual property
Organization: ElevateIP Alberta
Region: Alberta
Focus: IP strategy and funding for early stage companies
IP has gone from one of those things that is a bit of a black box to most founders, something that they hire a great lawyer to take care of for them, to now they’re seeing IP as an opportunity for them to take control of their journey.
Kevin Dahl measures the change in a few years, and in the reaction you get in a room.
That has inverted. IP discussions now happen in every accelerator, every incubator. The more important shift is what founders think IP is for. It used to be a legal chore, outsourced to a specialist and forgotten.
Now founders treat it as leverage: something they use to take control of their journey and create business value. Dahl calls that a big change, and it is the premise underneath every IAC program. IP only becomes an advantage once the founder understands it well enough to make decisions with it.
ElevateIP Alberta helps Alberta startups build intellectual property strategies and then act on them, with funding for both the strategy and its implementation. It is delivered by Innovate Calgary at the University of Calgary as part of the federal ElevateIP program, and it is an IAC partner.
See how our IP expertise can support your business.