Research and development in Canadian industry: Intellectual property, 2016 (final)
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Released: 2018-08-28
Total payments made for intellectual property products and technological services (IP) rose from $1.2 billion in 2015 to $3.5 billion in 2016.
Payments and receipts for IP tend to be volatile, and are considered measures of innovation and creativity often related to research and development (R&D). Among total payments for IP in 2016, those made for technological services, such as technical assistance and know-how, were the highest at $1.1 billion.
Total payments received for IP increased from $2.7 billion in 2015 to $3.9 billion in 2016. Payments received continued to be the highest for original software at $2.3 billion in 2016.
R&D businesses in Canada continue to be net exporters of intellectual property
Businesses in Canada with R&D activities continued to be net exporters of IP in 2016, with net outflows of about $950 million. Businesses with R&D expenditures purchased $1.7 billion of IP and technological services from organizations outside of Canada. R&D performers received $2.6 billion in payments from purchasers outside Canada, which contributed to the country's outward flow of knowledge. The majority of these payments received continued to be for original software.
Chart 1
Payments for intellectual property products made to and received from outside Canada
Non-affiliated companies account for the majority of payments and receipts for intellectual property
Payments to non-affiliated companies accounted for 96.5% of the $1.8 billion in IP payments made to R&D-active firms located within Canada in 2016. Of the $1.7 billion paid for IP to companies located outside of Canada, 61.3% ($1.0 billion) of the payments were to non-affiliated companies.
The majority of payments that R&D-active firms received from businesses located in Canada were from non-affiliated companies ($1.0 billion), with the remaining $301 million coming from parents, affiliates or subsidiaries. Non-affiliated companies also accounted for $1.6 billion of the $2.6 billion that R&D-active businesses received for purchases made by companies located outside of Canada.
Services-producing industries lead in payments and receipts for intellectual property
The services-producing sector, including wholesale trade and professional, scientific and technical services, continued to account for the majority of all spending on IP by R&D-active businesses with expenditures of $2.5 billion in 2016. The manufacturing sector accounted for the next highest amount at $987 million.
Payments for IP received by R&D-performing firms operating in services-producing industries totalled $3.5 billion in 2016, representing 9 in 10 dollars of total IP sales.
Chart 2
Payments for intellectual property products made to organizations
Chart 3
Payments for intellectual property products received from organizations
Note to readers
The estimates in this release do not represent all trade in intellectual property (IP) rights or informal technology assistance services in Canada.
These estimates of payments made and received for intellectual property and technology assistance were derived from data collected from companies within the sample of the Annual Survey of Research and Development in Canadian Industry. Although the data come from a sample survey, the responses are self-representing and are not weighted for these particular variables given the volatile nature of intellectual property-related activities. Therefore, the estimates represent intellectual property commercial transactions only for the companies in Canada with research and development activities that responded to the survey.
Research and development-active businesses are companies within the Annual Survey of Research and Development in Canadian Industry sample that currently or previously funded or performed research and development.
Intellectual property
Newly created knowledge can be formally protected through registered IP instruments. Technology payments include payments made or received for patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs, integrated circuit topography designs, original software, packaged off-the-shelf software, databases with a useful life exceeding one year, other technical assistance, industrial processes and know-how. Technology payments can be made to, or received from affiliated or unaffiliated organizations within or outside Canada. These technology payments can be for licensing of IP, consultation fees and one-time sales.
Contact information
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