Federal Patents, Licences and Royalties Survey, 2021/2022

The Federal Patents, Licences and Royalties (FPLR) survey is a biannual product. The last reference period for this survey was 2019/2020. The survey provides information on the activities of federal government science-based departments and agencies related to new instances of intellectual property (IP) reported or disclosed, to the number of patents, and new and active licences, and to income received from IP commercialization.

The FPLR survey became the measurement tool for federal IP disclosures in 2013/2014, replacing the Federal Intellectual Property Management Survey. This change followed the revocation of the Award Plan for Inventors and Innovators Policy in 2010, which provided a framework for rewarding inventors and innovators in the federal public service whose IP was used or licensed by federal departments and agencies.

Intellectual property (IP) is any creation of the human mind that can be protected by law. It includes inventions, works of literature, art, drama and music, computer software and databases, educational materials, industrial designs, integrated circuit topographies, new plant varieties and know-how.

Intellectual property management refers to the identification, protection, promotion or commercialization of the institution's intellectual property.

Intellectual property reports and disclosures are the sum of invention disclosures and other intellectual property reports and disclosures.

Invention disclosures refer to the number of inventions developed by researchers and reported to the institution. Excludes copyrightable intellectual property, industrial designs, trademarks, integrated circuit topographies and new plant varieties.

Other intellectual property reports and disclosures comprise copyrightable intellectual property, industrial designs, trademarks, integrated circuit topographies and new plant varieties.

A patent is a document that protects the rights of an inventor. Patents are granted by the governments of countries. They assure the inventor of the sole right to make, use and sell his/her invention in that country for a certain period of time, for example, 20 years for Canadian patents.

Patent applications are the sum of new initiating and new follow-on patent applications.

Patents in force refer to patents held by federal science-based departments and agencies.

A licence is an agreement with a client to use the institution's intellectual property for a fee or other consideration, such as equity in a company.

New licences refer to licences that were signed during the reference year.

Active licences represent the sum of all new licences plus all prior year licences still in force at the end of the reference period. The values for active and new licences represent the sum of licences executed within Canada and foreign licensees.

Income from intellectual property includes running royalties, licence issue fees, software and database end-user licence fees, and any other royalties.

Data for 2013/2014, 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 were revised with the release of 2019/2020 data. Revisions are due to conceptual differences in the definition of "other intellectual property reports and disclosures."