Intellectual Property at Baycrest
Who is an innovator?
From staff to volunteers, all members of the Baycrest community have the potential to be innovators. If you have an idea for an innovation that will improve the client experience and/or operational effectiveness at Baycrest, contact the Baycrest Innovation Office.
What is intellectual Property (IP)?
Intellectual Property (IP) includes inventions, literary and artistic works; designs and symbols; IP also includes names and images used in business.1 Different types of IP are protected by the law in different ways: patents protect inventions (e.g. a gene, a drug, an MRI sequence, an eye-tracking hardware, …); copyrights protect original works – dramatic, artistic, musical, or literary works (e.g. a computer program, a neuropsychological test battery, a manual, a dance program …); trademarks protect brands (e.g. “Baycrest”, “Cogniciti”, …); and industrial designs protect aesthetic designs (e.g. the aesthetic design of a walker created by biomedical engineers…).
What happens when you create IP as a Baycrest employee?
Any innovation or IP created by Baycrest personnel is Baycrest property. As such, Baycrest has the right to disseminate or commercialize any innovation or IP within its portfolio. In recognition of the efforts of Baycrest personnel, Baycrest has recently updated its IP policy to ensure that the innovator can benefit from the work they create. In situations where innovations are commercially successful and begin generating more revenues than costs, Baycrest and the innovator will share the upside. Our IP policy requires all new innovations to be disclosed promptly to Baycrest. This also happens to be the best way to notify BIO of your innovation, and jumpstart efforts to support your innovation.
What is Technology Transfer (TT) and what is Knowledge Mobilization (KM)?
Technology transfer (TT) and knowledge mobilization (KM) are the processes by which new innovations and research outcomes are transferred from the innovators or research institution to another organization or the public for the purpose of dissemination and/or commercialization. By means of various mobilization practices, whether commercial or otherwise, innovations may be further developed into products or processes that can be brought to market to realize real-world impacts in the community.
How does the Baycrest Innovation Office (BIO) support innovators?
The Baycrest Innovation Office (BIO) is Baycrest’s innovation hub, which includes technology transfer and knowledge mobilization services and supports for innovators.
BIO provides support to Baycrest innovators in many ways, including:
- Informing and guiding innovators and assessing their innovations
- Protecting innovations through patents, copyrights, or other forms of IP protection
- Developing and executing dissemination/commercialization strategies including licensing the innovation to an existing company or creating a new company
We work with internal and external partners in the public and private sectors to advance your innovation through to market.
What is an IP disclosure?
An IP disclosure is a written description of your innovation formally submitted to BIO. It includes information about novel aspects of the innovation, contributors, and public disclosures. The Baycrest IP disclosure form is very short and simple to fill. It is also used to determine how BIO can best assist you and keep track of all the Baycrest IP. Submitting an IP Disclosure starts the formal technology transfer process (see below).
When should you disclose your innovation to BIO?
You should disclose your innovation as soon as possible. The earlier it is disclosed, the easier it will be to help mobilize and protect your innovation. We strongly encourage you to consult with the Baycrest Innovation Office before sharing your innovation with a third party as doing so may have important implications for your IP rights.
IMPORTANT NOTE – Did you know that by publicly disclosing your innovation (through a journal, poster, presentation, etc.) you may be giving up future rights to your IP? Contact a member of the BIO team before you disclose your innovation.
Technology Transfer Process
*Note that IP Disclosures are an internal disclosure to BIO only – not a public disclosure, which may jeopardize your IP rights.