The IP system underpins innovative solutions to some of humanity’s most important challenges: poverty alleviation, quality education, food security, population health, climate action, and other development goals. A more inclusive IP system will simultaneously encourage innovation and distribute the benefits more equitably, within Canada and across the world. Innovation in the global knowledge economy is governed by a multi-layered network of legal rules, economic policies, and socio-cultural norms surrounding intellectual property rights. The intellectual property system now regulates, directly or indirectly, nearly all exchanges of the ideas, information, and data underpinning innovative solutions to some of humanity’s most important challenges.
Led by Professor Jeremy de Beer, the Chair’s research program addresses one of the most vexing issues in the field: how to simultaneously encourage innovation and distribute benefits more equitably, within Canada and across the world. For example, quality education is impossible without both ample supply of and access to copyrightable learning materials like books and journal articles, especially in digital form. The world’s digital knowledge can be mined through the artificial intelligence driving new science and technology breakthroughs, but not everyone benefits equally from either trade-secret algorithms or totally open data.
In confronting all these seemingly disparate challenges, the Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Intellectual Property Law tackles a common denominator: the fact that exclusive intellectual property rights are widely used trying to promote inclusive technology innovation for human development. The integrated research program applies fresh conceptual insights to an array of diverse but interconnected human challenges. It transcends not only disciplinary boundaries but also national borders, flipping conventional narratives of development. Through mutually beneficial partnerships, robust evidence-gathering methods, and imaginative knowledge translation strategies, the chair is committed to improving Canada and the world’s intellectual property system.
