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ARTICLE · 05 APRIL 2021

Financial Product Differentiation Using Patents – A Canadian Example (Part 1)

Dickinson Wright PLLC
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Lightbulbs, bike gears, corkscrews, drilling rigs, TV towers, computer chips, medicine, and cleaning supplies. That's the kind of stuff patents are for, right?

CanadaIntellectual Property
Matthew D. Powell
Matthew D. Powell
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Lightbulbs, bike gears, corkscrews, drilling rigs, TV towers, computer chips, medicine, and cleaning supplies.  That's the kind of stuff patents are for, right?  Patents are only applied-for by those white-coated toilers frowning at lab benches, by those strange tinkerers in their dusty garages, and by those hoody-clad Silicon Valley campus-dwellers carting their chaotic circuit boards, right?

Patents are definitely for these things, and are definitely applied-for by these people.  But, in my experience, patents are also applied-for by entrepreneurial massage therapists, wine enthusiasts, orthodontists, optometrists, fashionistas, filmmakers, and construction workers.  Really, patents are for anyone wanting to be able to stop others from copying some product or service they've conceived of.

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