Conestoga's Centre for Commercialization (C4C) received $422,000 in funding from Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) to support more enterprises commercialize homegrown research and innovation.
This is the third consecutive year the college has been awarded funding from IPON as part of an additional investment of $3.39 million announced in Kitchener in April to strengthen intellectual property (IP) capacity at Ontario colleges and universities.
"Small businesses are at the heart of our economy, yet they shy away from leveraging their most valuable asset: intellectual property. This funding will allow C4C to continue offering its services to help businesses navigate through the complexities of IP to maximize their commercialization outcome," said director Alla Darwish.
Conestoga's Centre for Commercialization helps entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) unlock the full potential of their intellectual property, offering a full suite of IP services across the entire innovation continuum to help businesses maximize the commercialization outcome for their goods and services.
The continued funding will expand on the centre's joint initiative with Durham College and Sheridan College, which refer entrepreneurs to Conestoga for IP services.
C4C is focused on becoming a regional centre of excellence and expertise in IP commercialization for college-applied researchers, SME partners and entrepreneurs to improve commercialization outcomes in this region.
Since its creation in 2023, the centre has provided IP services to more than 120 companies, funded 24 patent applications and 50 trademark filings in support of regional businesses. IP services are tailored to the development stage of goods and services, from ideation to prototype to commercial stages.
For more information
299 Doon Valley Drive
Kitchener Ontario
Canada N2G 4M4
www.conestogac.on.ca/
