IP education is the first step to unlocking up to $100,000 in government contributions. Our clients can take:
- Paid education with PMP
- Free Level 1 education under IP Assist
- Free Stream 1 under AccelerateIP
Background
IP education refers to learning about Intellectual Property (IP), which includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. It equips you with the knowledge to protect your creations, understand your rights, and apply IP strategies. You get the protection you want and save money, so you don’t constantly ask IP patent agent or lawyer questions. Plus it unlocks government contributions to your IP plans and operations.
Paid education with PMP
We have provided clients with custom IP education that exceeds the standards found in free courses.
IP Management is a complex practice. You need to know IP law, technology, and details of the business. In our education, we focus on what is possible under IP law. This includes the basics of IP (e.g., intangible creations, their value for companies, how IP rights protect them, the uses of IP rights); a review of major tools (including patents, copyright, trade secrets, trademarks) and others relevant to your industry sector (such as, industrial design), and typical uses and practices of IP relevant to your industry sector (including licensing).
We have provided IP education to many companies. Here is a rough count of companies from recent years.
| Year | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Count | 9 | 30 | 26 | TBD |
It was very insightful to learn about the laws around IP. It was presented in a very engaging manner, especially the examples that were provided.
– Participant in 2023
We are proud that attendees find these lecture sessions “wonderful”, “digestible”, “useful”, “inspiring”, and “an absolute pleasure”. One even liked the “humour” our expert used.
So consider IP education for your leadership, technical and back office staff, and marketing team. We tailor the sessions for your industry and needs. We sometimes group companies by industry to save time and save you money.
Classroom learning not your style?
Some clients prefer to have more hands on learning. We are the only patent agency that run simulations show what it is like to be an IP manager in a startup. In these sessions we take you from learning and into the activity in minutes. The reviews of these workshops are better than the lectures. For example, see “How a business hackathon full of surprises sparked big ideas for Vraj Dudhat”.
IP Education under IP Assist
IP Assist supports participants of NRC’s IRAP program to develop and leverage their IP. There are three levels of funding and participation. IP awareness (Level 1) provides your business with access to an IP advisor who provided 3 hours of semi-customized education so you can increase your knowledge of IP best practices and better understand how to leverage and safeguard your innovations and other intangible assets. The cost is free to you.
If you are a Canadian company with employees and are growing through innovation then please join IRAP. The program provides many.
If you’re an NRC IRAP participant, reach out to your industrial technology advisor for more information about IP Assist. Ask for IP Education from PMP. If you’re an innovative Canadian company that isn’t yet working with NRC IRAP read more here and sign up here.
Stream 1 under AccelerateIP
AccelerateIP is a program designed to support innovative startups in British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut by helping them protect, manage, and leverage their intellectual property (IP). It is part of the ElevateIP initiative funded by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). For more information, see Maximize your IP assets by joining AccelerateIP.
The program offers three main streams, including “IP Education and Awareness” providing foundational training and certification in IP. There are three flavours of training under Stream 1.
- Education
- Stream 1.1 IP Certification
- Stream 1.2 No certificate granted
- Stream 1.3 IP Pathways
These courses fulfil the education requirement for Stream 2-2 where you can define an IP plan, or Stream 3 where you execute the plan. We like IP Pathways as it is free, frequent, and comprehensive.
Change in 2025: take IP Pathways to unlock AccelerateIP grants
If you are applying for funding from AccelerateIP at least one person in your company should have applied for, taken, or received IP education from AccelerateIP, e.g., IP Pathways. The only other way is to get a waiver if your staff includes a lawyer, patent agent, etc.
Conclusion
IP education is the first step to unlocking government contributions to your IP budgets. You have three broad options for IP education. If you have questions, contact us.
