Canadian Patents and Development Limited (CPDL) was a Canadian agency tasked with promoting the commercialization of inventions and discoveries arising from government departments and agencies, as well as those disclosed to it by universities and others publicly funded organizations.
Soon after its incorporation, CPDL began making its services available to Canadian universities and other publicly financed organizations.
Despite its broad mandate and many agreements, CPDL was noted by university administrators as possessing inadequate resources to effectively manage inventions for all of Canada's universities,[1] while the industry consensus "was that CPDL's work was under-publicized, under-supported, undersold and under-followed-up.
The bill authorized the Minister of Industry, Science, and Technology to dissolve CPDL, and made government departments and agencies responsible for managing their own intellectual property.
Inventions for Industry: A history of Canadian Patents and Development Limited and the commercialization of university research in Canada.