Accelerate IP (Founders)

Program Overview

Protecting your startup’s intellectual property (IP) takes more than just filing paperwork. Having an informed, actionable IP strategy can neutralize copycats, boost your investability and give you the edge in the global marketplace.

Accelerate IP is a three-year initiative supporting startups based in BC, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut with a focus on clean tech, health tech and data tech. New Ventures BC will lead the program with InnovateBC and a collaborative network of accelerators, incubators, and tech organizations. 

With a vision to support over 600 startups with $12.5M in funding, the program’s launch saw overwhelming demand with multiple cohorts at full capacity. Applicants for 2024 are already pouring in to make the most of this exciting opportunity to strengthen their ventures’ IP.

How Spring Can Support You

Spring is a Business Accelerator and Incubator (BAI) for this initiative. As a BAI, we’ll support our community of entrepreneurs and their startups through:

IP awareness and educational opportunities via activities like workshops, programs, conferences, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities
Gaining the foundational IP knowledge required to succeed
Developing IP Strategies and providing the tools, talent and supports to manage and make the most of their IP assets
Implementing IP Strategies by enabling startups to achieve the objectives of their IP Strategies

Eligible companies may also receive legal support for the services they need to protect their IP. You can learn more in the Program Guidelines right here.

What It’s Like to Be an Accelerate IP Participant

As an early stage startup, we conduct quite a few IP activities such as research and development, brand building, business processes innovation, market expansion etc. So far we have spent more than $30k into legal costs related to IP. It can be challenging to navigate the world of IP for the first time founders who rely on their legal team to guide them in every aspect of legal protection, which can get really expensive really quickly if you don’t know what you don’t know and rely completely on the legal team.

We received a timely recommendation letter from Natalie at Spring to be considered for the Accelerate IP program offered by Innovate BC and New Venture BC. We participated in stream 1, a certification program that was fully funded by Accelerate IP and provided us with adequate knowledge about how and why to build IP strategy. Immediately after completing the level 1 certification program, we applied for stream 2, IP strategy development program. Again, Spring immediately jumped to support us with the recommendation letter.

Once accepted, we went through all our documents, IPs, and business goals to consolidate and streamline our IP strategy. This would have cost us about $25k but thanks to this program, we had to spend only about $6k out of pocket. This work really dug deeper into all our IP to date and found all the errors and loopholes and ways to correct them and streamline the strategy. Spring is an organization that we could always count on to receive the timely recommendation letters and support needed for any such fundings and we are so grateful to be part of this amazing ecosystem that Spring is building.

– Jayesh Vekariya, Co-Founder, Joni

3 Streams of Support

AccelerateIP will be offered through three streams of programming:

Foundations – Education and awareness via webinars, online modules and an IP certification program
Strategy – 1:1 hours for dedicated mentorship on your IP strategy with funding of up to 25K for approved third party legal support
Implementation – Funding of up to 60K for approved third party legal support

AccelerateIP is an ElevateIP Recipient, a national program of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, leading in intellectual property supports for startups in British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. The program will run until March 31, 2026.