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34 J U N E 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m strong intellectual property strategy isn't just about traditional patenting, says Lance Laking, investment director with the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund. Laking says re-imagining intel- lectual property also means broadening the scope of it to good branding and even a culture of knowledge protection within companies. "Every developer, engineer, and person that you hire signs a bona fide employment agreement with IP and confidentiality component to it so that the invention and the activi- ties of the company are all captured inside," says Laking. "Those are all the sorts of things we look at as an investor to make sure the company has its house in order around the broader IP system." Enforcement: a game of Whac-A-Mole The thing about obtaining IP is that then you have to enforce it. "There are no IP police to do it for you," says Patrick Fitzgerald, an IP and technol- ogy lawyer at Cox & Palmer in Halifax. Policing breaches against intellectual property are also a costly challenge in the digital age, he adds. To start, there's hardly any consen- sus around how best to issue takedown notices when, say, copyrighted work is illegally used and shared online. "It's still very polarized even many years later," says Courage, who adds that many dif- ferent laws have been tried worldwide. The music industry, which has per- haps been battling infringing copies online the longest, came up with what was, at least initially, a clever idea to deal with the problem. It teamed up with Google to use the tech giant's pow- erful software to track down copyright CONNECT WITH IN-HOUSE COUNSEL COLLEAGUES AT LEXPERT.CA/CCCA Check out in-house counsel's best networking tool! The 2015/16 Lexpert CCCA/ACCJE Directory & Yearbook online edition is a user-friendly, outstanding key resource for all in-house counsel. Access more than 4,000 listees, more than 1,900 organizations, find fresh editorial content, and information on deals and links to important resources. ANYWHERE. ANYTIME. ANY DEVICE. Untitled-1 1 2016-02-11 10:17 AM ASSERT&DEFEND INTELLECTUALPROPERTY DIMOCK.COM With our leading IP firm on your team, you have the expertise and innovative thinking needed to find inspired, practical solutions. Untitled-8 1 2016-05-12 3:04 PM Legislatures don't want to touch [patentability of software-based inventions] because it's a complex issue and it's not a highly glamorous issue, and courts are kind of making it up as they go. Noel Courage, Bereskin & Parr LLP

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