Become an IPON Client

Applications for Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) IP Bootcamp and Partner Program are now open. Designed with innovators in mind, each program aims to help Ontario-based entrepreneurs, researchers and small-and-medium sized enterprises protect their intellectual property (IP) and reach their full commercialization potential.  

Programs 

Whether you want a customized IP program tailored to your business needs, supplementary services to on-going ones you already have, or prefer self-guided resources, we have an IP program for you. View our program guide here. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and IPON will be in contact with all applicants.

IP Bootcamp

Designed for IP owners who need immediate access to IP funding and are eager to engage with IP experts and valuable IP resources.  

Client commitment:  

  • 3 months 

  • 3-5 hours per week 

  • Use IP funding up to $35,000 within 3 months 

  • Contributes 20% of IP service costs and IPON covers 80% 

Services

  • Immediate funding up to $35,000  

  • Additional funding calls up to $100,000 

  • 1:1 account manager 

  • IP Foundations course and workshop 

  • Advanced IP education*

  • IP benchmarking 

  • Tiger team*

  • Networking events 

  • IP intelligence 

  • IP mentorship  

Partner Program

Available to IP owners who are affiliated with an IPON partner organization such as an Ontario Regional Innovation Centre, OCI, Vector, and need additional IP support to complement their existing services.  

Client commitment:  

  • Up to 6 months 

  • Use IP funding up to $35,000 within program 

  • Contributes 20% of IP service costs and IPON covers 80% 

Services 

  • Immediate funding up to $35,000 

  • Additional funding calls up to $100,000 

  • IP Foundations course and workshop 

  • Advanced IP education*

  • IP benchmarking 

  • Tiger team*

  • Networking events 

  • IP intelligence (if needed) 

  • IP mentorship (if needed) 

Self Guided

For IP owners who want to learn and access services, including funding and education, at their own pace. 

Client commitment:  

  • At the client's own pace and schedule. 

Services 

  • Funding calls up to $100,000 

  • IP Foundations course 

  • Advanced IP education*

  • IP benchmarking 

  • Tiger team*

  • Networking events 

 * Advanced IP Education and Tiger Team are coming soon. 

Eligibility 

  • Are an Ontario-based small-and-medium size enterprise with fewer than 500 employees 

  • Are in one of the following: MedTech, life sciences, artificial intelligence, vehicle technology, and mining and advanced manufacturing as related to the aforementioned sectors. See sector definitions

  • Operates in Ontario and intends to grow the business in Ontario long-term 

  • Owns IP or is an exclusive licensee and intends to commercialize or monetize in Canada 

  • Demonstrates the potential to realize societal or economic benefit to Ontario 

  • Demonstrates the financial capacity to advance the protection and commercialization of IP and IP rights that may be supported by IPON Client Services  

  • Have an Immediate IP need suited for IPON services and IP funding 

  • Are affiliated with a Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) or IPON key partner in Ontario if applying to the Partner Program 

Learn more about our services, read our Eligibility By-law and check out our FAQs for further information. If you have any further questions email us at info@ip-ontario.ca. 

Hear From Our Clients

  • “The IPON team has a great understanding of a startup company on top of their expertise in IP strategy. This enabled them to effectively provide support, connect us to the mentors, and guide us through the process of establishing a proper IP strategy.”

    Dr. Azar Azad, CEO, A.I. VALI

  • “IPON has been a great program for us in a number of ways. First, the training has been very good to improve our understand of IP and the processes. Second, we were exposed to different IP services that we were not aware of and fill in some gaps. Third, the financial support enabled us to really accelerate the implementation of our IP development. I expect that our IP output will be about 3-4x greater this year compared to last year.”

    Dr. Derrick Reading, CEO, Betterfrost Technologies

  • “We're pre-revenue, so being able to start filing trademarks and working on a provisional patent application thanks to funding and connection to a top-tier IP lawyer is really significant and wouldn't have been possible without IPON's support.”

    Seth Hardy, Co-founder and CTO, Bug Mars

  • “IPON has enabled Carbonix to both better understand the IP landscape and develop an informed IP strategy. Collectively this helps create and protect value. … As Canada’s only Indigenous advanced materials company, this means we can focus on what we do best, which is enable our industry partners to do what they do best better. What is clear to us is that all new and emerging companies should participate in IPON programming to protect themselves and should be mandatory prior to receiving any government supported funding.”

    Paul Pede, CEO and President, Carbonix

  • “With the services and grant funding made available from IPON, Carsolia Composites has been able to patent their innovative product and is now free to role it out to the automotive industry and prospective customers.”

    President and Founder, Carsolia Composites Corporation

  • “The most impactful part of the IPON training was how to think about IP strategy from a high-level perspective. IP strategy is not separate from the rest of the company strategy. A business must first understand its business strategy, technology development strategy, and marketing strategy, and then think about how the IP strategy enables the other core business activities. IPON's emphasis on this shift in thinking was extremely important for our business and made our IP development and strategy much more focused. We believe this will help our business be much more effective and successful.”

    Farzad Amighi, COO, Mazlite

  • “The IPON team has been fast, accommodating and very easy to work with throughout our engagement. I found the IP case study workshop to be very useful, even has someone who works with intellectual property on a daily basis. It was great to hear the perspectives of other companies and their founder and the IPON facilitators were great. Highly recommend others do this. Excellent education program, mentorship, timely communication, well organized program.”

    Glenn Crossley, Associate Director, Business Development & IP, McMaster University

  • “IPON's program has been paramount to our success. We filed national phase IP on USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea and were also able to opportunistically capture further IP in October 2023. IPON is a critical resource for life-science companies in the province and I would highly recommend it to start-ups entering this space.”

    Fergal Kerins, Founder and Managing Director, PreOperative Performance

  • “So far, the experience with IPON has been fantastic. It has helped leaders within our team learn about IP and helped us build value within our venture. … Overall the program has been good for our growth trajectory.”

    Ashkan Beigi, CEO, Qoherent

  • “One of the major benefits of participating in the IPON program has been that we were encouraged to think about our IP position and development roadmap more strategically. Through the program, we learned about the gaps and received step-by-step guidance on how best to address them. Such strategic planning, along with financial support from IPON, has significantly helped us strengthen and expand our IP portfolio, enhance the company's competitiveness, and create barriers to entry for competitors."

    Mohammad Ali Amini, CEO and Co-Founder, QurCan Therapeutics

  • “IP education was well organized and contact with IPON staff was well handled. The 80/20 split is incredible funding and I hope to use this in the future.”

    Jeremy Henderson, CEO, Stratotegic

  • “As a MedTech startup, my team and I are thankful for IPON's support to help subsidize the significant costs of IP filing on our platform technology, as well as provide critical educational resources that helped my team and I build a strong foundation in IP.”

    Saumik Biswas, CEO, President and Founder, Tenomix

  • “IPON has been a fundamental resource to ensure that a new startup can develop and protect its IP in an increasingly competitive landscape. Thanks to the support and funding we received we have been able to leverage legal help to ensure that our patenting strategy is sound and enables us to operate freely into the foreseeable future. This is a high value add to the provincial startup and business ecosystem.”

    Oleksiy Zaika, Co-Founder and CTO, Vessl Prosthetics

  • “We have firmed up our comprehensive IP Strategy, focused not just on patents but on patents and trademarks. This firmer strategy is better aligned with our business needs and projected growth. As a result of IPON we have also begun to execute on this strategy.”

    John Craig, CEO, and Dan Willis, CTO, Vigilant AI