Skip to main content
Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Canadian IP System

In Canada, you can formally protect the value of your creations through 6 main types of IP rights. The criteria for ownership and protection are different for each type of IP:

 

  1. Patents
    • Term: Up to 20 years after filing
    • Protection: Apply nationally
    • Protects against: Use, sale, manufacture
    • What is protected: Inventions
  1. Trademarks
    • Term: Renewable 10-year period
    • Protection: Reputation or goodwill for a service or product in the geographic area (registration can be sought in Canada)
    • Protects against: Use
    • What is protected: Identity of your products and services: words, symbols and designs
  1. Copyrights
    • Term: Life plus 50 years
    • Protection: Work fixed in a tangible medium of expression (registration can be sought in Canada)
    • Protects against: Copying, reproducing
    • What is protected: Original literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works, and other subject matters, e.g.sound recordings, performances and communication signals
  1. Industrial Designs
    • Term: Up to 10 years
    • Protection: Apply nationally
    • Protects against: Rent or importation, sale, manufacture
    • What is protected: Visual appearance of a product: ornamentation, shape, pattern, configuration
  1. Integrated Circuit Topographies
    • Term: 10 years
    • Protection: Apply nationally
    • Protects against: Use, sale, manufacture
    • What is protected: Original integrated circuit layout designs
  1. Plant Breeders
    • Term: Up to 25 years for a variety of trees and vines and 20 years for all other varieties of plants
    • Protection: Apply nationally
    • Protects against: Sale
    • What is protected: New varieties of plants and their respective propagating material