The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities has appointed Windsor Law professor Myra Tawfik to serve on an expert panel on the commercialization of intellectual property generated by universities.

The panel will look at ways to:

• improve the innovation outcomes for the benefit of Ontario’s economy;
• promote the creation and commercialization of intellectual property;
• review current commercialization capacity inside Ontario’s postsecondary education sector; and
• recommend strategies for improved generation and commercialization of research and intellectual property.

It is to deliver a final report in December.

Professor Tawfik holds the position of Professor of Intellectual Property Commercialization and Strategy at the Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre), and has founded and led a number of intellectual property clinical initiatives at the University of Windsor.

“Intellectual property rights are the currency in a global innovation economy and this province is increasingly reliant on the commercialization of ideas to drive economic prosperity,” she says. “This panel will assess the current university innovation ecosystem in Ontario to provide meaningful and considered approaches to enhancing the IP commercialization process for public sector research and development.”

The panel will be chaired by Jim Balsillie, retired co-CEO of Research In Motion, now Blackberry.

Find more information on the Windsor Law website.

—Rachelle Prince