How agribusinesses are expanding Canada’s intellectual property

Intellectual property can be a complicated aspect of business to tackle. When taking initial steps, business owners must determine not only how to go about their strategy, but also what form of intellectual property protection to seek.

As with most businesses, Protein Industries Canada’s members generally choose their initial strategies based on which options would best protect their processes or products. For Mera Food Group, this meant utilizing a diversified intellectual property protection strategy.

“We took patents on our hydrodynamic cavitation process, and we further protected by using trademarks, additional patents and trade secrets,” Mera Food Group Manager of Business Development Charles Goranson said.

Other members, meanwhile, initially chose to go with a single type of intellectual property, due largely to its natural fit for their products.

“We have filed a composition of matter patent,” Lucent BioSciences Chief Technology Officer Peter Gross said. “It’s very difficult to get around a composition of matter patent because the patent covers the material of subsequent applications, even if they’re not foreseen by the inventor of the material.”

Regardless of how many or what type of intellectual property protection strategy each member company first utilized, however, the end result has been the same: the development of their Canadian-made processes, technology and products, helping propel the Canada plant-protein sector toward its position as a global leader.

Mera Food Group’s intellectual property protection strategy journey began outside of the country, with a core piece of intellectual property that they’ve since enhanced and protected within Canada and the United States. This, Goranson said, has been beneficial to both the company and the sector, and is a route they would easily go again, as they believe “it is very important to search the world for innovative cross industrial technologies and to secure them here in Saskatchewan.”

While Mera Food Group is primarily using their intellectual property to develop new plant-based protein products as part of the project announced with Protein Industries Canada, Mera Developments and Benson Farms in November 2020, they see further potential for it in the future.

“Through the Protein Industries Canada project and commercial development, we believe we can increase the portfolio of commodities we can process,” Goranson said. “In addition, we believe we can add value to by-products of existing producers on the prairies.”

Lucent BioSciences, meanwhile, has seen their intellectual property protection strategy undergo more of a change throughout its lifetime. The company currently has one piece of intellectual property protection filed, but expects to see more since beginning work on the project it’s been working on with Protein Industries Canada and AGT Foods and Ingredients.

“We’ve had some unexpected results, and because of that we’re now pursuing some additional patents to cover that IP,” Gross said. He added that the company has gained additional knowledge over the last year, related to their Soileos product, that will remain trade secret rather than become a patent.

While Lucent’s BioSciences didn’t fully expect the intellectual property path they went down, they wouldn’t change it. If they had any advice for other businesses pursuing an intellectual property protection strategy, it would be to follow a similar route, including reaching out to external resources, as well as to talk about your intellectual property without revealing too much.

Goranson had similar advice.

“Canada has an excellent reputation and network of trade representatives through our embassies and consulates,” she said, adding that businesses should reach out to them. “They have provided us with introductions to technology developers and competent legal and business advisors in each unique environment.”