Commercialization Mandate Policy Framework

In July 2020, the Ontario government released the province’s first Intellectual Property Action Plan to help strengthen our overall approach to commercialization of IP. One of the key pillars of the Intellectual Property Action Plan is a commitment to clarify the commercialization mandates of post-secondary institutions.

In January 2022, the government created Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON), a new agency that will provide sophisticated IP knowledge, advice and services to support Ontario innovators, researchers, businesses and entrepreneurs. IPON will help support the implementation of the government’s Commercialization Mandate Policy Framework by providing support to colleges and universities – and their researchers – and preparing an annual report that summarizes the sector’s progress in implementing the framework and improving commercialization outcomes.

The first step in the Commercialization Mandate Policy Framework process is for each post-secondary institution to publicly post a Commercialization Framework that reflects the institutions current commitment and processes to commercialization.

Lakehead University’s Commercialization Framework can be found here.