The CBA welcomes the Minister of Industry, Science and Industry

Via email: ised.minister-ministre.isde@canada.ca; melanie.joly@parl.gc.ca

The Honourable Melanie Joly, P.C, M.P.

Minister, Industry, Science and Industry

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

235 Queen Street

Ottawa, ON K1A 0H5

Dear Minister Joly,

We are writing to extend our congratulations on your election and appointment as Minister of Industry, Science and Industry. We look forward to continuing a positive and constructive relationship with you and your team.

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) is a national association representing over 40,000 jurists, including lawyers, notaries, law teachers, and students across Canada. We promote the rule of law, access to justice, effective law reform and provide expertise on how the law touches the lives of Canadians every day. Your mandate contains matters that are of particular importance to several CBA Sections. The Intellectual Property Section deals with legal issues around ownership, licensing, transfer and protection of intellectual property and related property rights. The Competition Law Section promotes a greater awareness and understanding of legal and policy issues relating to competition law and foreign investment. The Privacy and Access Law Section represents specialists in privacy law and access to information issues from across Canada.

The Intellectual Property Section supports your government’s suggestion to bring IP back to Canada and attract talent by creating a Canada Patent Box that will reward builders who locate or stay in Canada. We thank you for your efforts to modernize Canada’s intellectual property system. While the Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s (CIPO) digitization initiatives are commendable, they have led to significant backlogs and ongoing delays affecting both trademark and patent applications. Despite progress in clearing trademark backlogs, administrative and technical issues-such as errors in filing certificates and system glitches-continue to delay patent processing, including expedited applications. The new Patent Term Adjustment system is unlikely to provide meaningful patent extensions, raising concerns about whether this will be addressed in future trade negotiations. Additionally, uncertainty remains around patent and trademark agent privilege.

Beyond these operational challenges, the rise of generative AI in the legal system presents risks but also opportunities to improve access to justice and reduce costs. Issues around copyright ownership and privacy also demand careful attention. We urge the Ministry to prioritize resolving CIPO’s delays and technical problems, clarify agent privilege, and ensure Canada’s patent term framework aligns with international standards, while proactively addressing the legal and ethical implications of AI in IP and justice systems. We look forward to working with you on these issues.

The Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review Section has a long history of active engagement on policy issues with the framework legislation team as well as the Competition Bureau and the Foreign Investment Review and Economic Security Branch. We participated in consultations related to legislative amendments, regulations and guidelines. While there have been extensive changes in recent years to modernize Canada’s competition and foreign investment regimes, evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions may warrant further review. This question will be the focus of our annual Competition Conference in Ottawa on November 20-21, 2025. The Section welcomes opportunities to continue to provide input and advice on issues your teams are addressing in these areas through staff level discussions and formal consultation processes.

The Privacy and Access Law Section welcomes your government’s focus on Canadians’ privacy and AI. We support a clear distinction between legislation in these two areas to ensure the effectiveness of each framework and to avoid regulatory gaps, conflicts or redundancies. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has proven effective, largely due to its principles-based, technology-neutral approach. As data portability and data exchanges evolve, future regulations must make room for innovation. We recommend empowering and adequately resourcing regulatory bodies, fostering collaboration among federal, provincial, and international regulators, and continuously monitoring compliance to refine enforcement strategies. Sufficient resources for privacy and access to information regulators, as well as public institutions, are essential to maintaining public trust. Striking the right balance between innovation and a strong regulatory framework will help Canada stay competitive while protecting Canadians’ rights. Broad consultation with diverse stakeholders, including historically marginalized groups, is crucial. The Privacy and Access Law Section welcomes the opportunity to contribute.

Given our legal perspective on many issues in your mandate, we would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and your officials to discuss how we might assist you in addressing those issues. Should it be helpful, please feel free to have your staff contact Julie Terrien, Advocacy Lawyer at the CBA, at juliet@cba.org.

Yours truly,

(original letter signed by Julie Terrien for Bill Abbott, Andrew Shaughnessy and A. Neil Campbell)