Useful and Non-Obvious News – Winter / 16

By Adam Mizera

New Export Assistance Program for Canadian SMEs

In January 2016, the Government of Canada launched a new program, CanExport, to help SMEs to generate new export opportunities in international markets.

The program provides direct financial support ranging from $ 10,000 to $ 100,000 for a large number of export-related marketing activities, including legal fees related to distribution and representation agreements and market research.

Eligible companies must have less than 250 employees and an annual income in Canada between $ 200,000 and $ 50 million.

An online request for financial support can be made on the following website.

Update to Free Multilingual Terminology Database for Patents

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recently updated its Pearl database. This database gives access to scientific and technical terms derived from patent documents. More than  110,000 terms and 16,300 concepts in 10 languages, including English and French have all been entered and validated by language experts and terminologists from WIPO who work on international patent applications. WIPO Pearl can be accessed from the following website.

Biological Sequence Listings in Canadian Patent Applications

Since September 22, 2015, it is no longer a requirement to provide biological sequence listings forming part of the description of new international patent applications entering the national phase in Canada, as these listings are automatically obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the format submitted during the international phase.

For more details, please consult the following notice from the Canadian Patent Office.