Highlights

1. Total income from Intellectual Property (IP) at reporting ¹  Canadian universities and affiliated teaching hospitals was $53.2 million (current dollars) in 2008 (Table 15-1). Average income from IP of $425,500, represents a 9% decrease from 2007 ($468,500).
2. About 81% of Canadian universities and affiliated hospitals who reported information to the survey were engaged in intellectual property management (IP) in 2008 (Table 1-1).
3. There were 321 full-time equivalent employees engaged in IP management in 2008, while total operational expenditures for IP management were $51.1 million (Table 2-1). When averaged by institution, operational expenditures increased by 9% between 2007 and 2008, from $374,000 to $409,000.
4. The value of research contracts undertaken by reporting universities and affiliated hospitals was estimated at $2 billion, up 55% from 2007 (Table 8-1).
5. In 2008, the number of new inventions disclosed and reported by reporting universities and affiliated hospitals was 1,613 (Table 11-1). This represents a 20% increase compared to 2007, mostly due to those same institutions that reported in the last three years.
6. There were 1,791 patent applications filed with reporting universities and affiliated hospitals in 2008 (Table 12-1). Although this represents a 10% increase overall compared to 2007, when averaged by institution, the number of patent applications actually dropped by 2%.
7. The number of patents issued to reporting Canadian universities and affiliated hospitals declined by almost a third to 346 (Table 12-1), while the total number of patents held at the end of 2008 stood at 5,908 (Table 13-1).
8. A total of 19 spin-off companies launched by reporting universities and affiliated hospitals were incorporated in 2008 (Table 20-1). This brings to 1,242 the total number of companies spun off by reporting educational institutions to date since the series began in 1999 (Tables 16-1 and 17-1).

Because of significant variations observed between universities and hospitals on intellectual property issues, data from this survey are not weighted or imputed. Results are presented as gross results and only cover the respondent population.