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Category Archives: Canada
Obit: Leonard Lee, Canadian innovator and entrepreneur
Leonard Lee, founder of Lee Valley Tools, a woodworking and gardening tool supply company, has died at the age of 77. Lee started selling woodworking tools by mail order in the late 1970s and then branched out into gardening tools, … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, inventors, Leonard G. P. Lee (1938-2016)
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PatentScope Adds Canadian National Collection
An early Christmas present from the WIPO: PatentScopenow includes the Canadian national collection from ~1920 forward. No PDFs yet, it appears, but full text (based on OCR) is available for some patents. A few pre-1970s patents have IPC codes, so … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, PatentScope
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Improved Peanut Butter Jar?
A pro-hockey player and inventor from Alberta thinks he’s solved a problem that has plagued kids forever: how to get the last bit of peanut butter out of the bottom of the jar without getting it all over your fingers. … Continue reading
Posted in Alberta, Canada, inventors, peanut butter
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Great Canadian Inventions Profiled in Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail has launched a new monthly feature profiling great Canadian inventions and inventors. The first inventor profiled is Al Gross (1918-2000) who pioneered the development of two-way radio systems (walkie-talkie) in the 1930s. Mr. Gross, who was … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, inventors
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World Cities Ranked by Patent Productivity
Today’s Globe and Mail published an interesting list of 24 cities ranked by the number of U.S. patents per 100,000 population. The top ranked Canadian city was Vancouver (11th), followed by Toronto (12th), Calgary (13th), Montreal (15th) and Halifax (20th). Seven … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, economic development, Innovation, Patent statistics
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Canadian Inventor/Designer Robert Dickie
The Globe and Mail‘s business magazine has an interesting profile of Canadian inventor and industrial designer Robert G. Dickie. (“The Business of Brainstorms“, April 29) Dickie’s firm, Spark Innovations, is responsible for designing dozens of products ranging from electric toothbrushes … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, inventors
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Fostering Canadian Innovation
Today’s Globe and Mail has another op-ed piece arguing that Canada needs to do better at promoting innovation and investing in R&D. (“Innovation is Our Hidden Deficit“) It’s probably true that Canada could do more at home to support innovation … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, Innovation, Patent statistics
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Canadian Patents Reach 18,554 in 2007-2008
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office released its annual report for 2007-2008 earlier this year. The number of patents granted in 2007-2008 was 18,554, up from 16,100 in 2006-2007. The United States ranked first with 8,534 patents, or 46 percent of … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, CIPO, Patent statistics
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Canadian Patents Database – Representative Drawings
The CIPO’s Canadian Patents Database now displays representative drawings in patent records. This is a great improvement as it allows searchers to immediately see drawings as they scan search results instead of requiring them to open up the drawing image … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, Canadian Patents Database, CIPO
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Snow Bike Hits Slopes
Skiers and snowboarders may see something different on the slopes this winter… Two entrepreneurs from Vancouver Island hope to launch the next winter sports craze with their snow bike, a winter version of a mountain bike. Called the Ktrak, the … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, inventors, Ktrak, Snow Bike
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Patent Librarian's Notebook 