North Forge - ElevateIP Webinar

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Join us for an IP-savvy founder’s guide to startup protection, hosted by North Forge’s ElevateIP Program.

Own It or Lose It

A tactical walkthrough of five founder levers—triage, trade secrets, AI, assignments, and contracts—that decide whether your IP works for you or against you.

Key Topics Covered:

IP triage (the 30-minute first pass).

A fast inventory of your code, data, brand, designs, and know-how that maps each asset to an immediate protection path (file, hide, or contract). The goal is a one-page action plan you can convert into an ElevateIP-funded strategy and first filings.

Trade secrets (your default moat).

Most early advantages are operational and data-driven—perfect for trade-secret protection if you can prove “reasonable measures” (access control, NDAs, marking, off-boarding). We’ll show a lightweight system that founders can implement this week and later scale with ElevateIP support.

AI + IP (what you can decide today).

With Canada still consulting on GenAI and copyright, founders can de-risk now by logging data sources, respecting opt-outs, and baking vendor warranties/indemnities—while aligning to the OPC’s GenAI privacy principles that buyers increasingly expect.

Assignments & moral-rights waivers (clean cap table, clean codebase).

You don’t own what you can’t paper: get signed copyright assignments and separate moral-rights waivers from everyone who contributes (including pre-incorporation work). This prevents diligence surprises and lets ElevateIP dollars go toward higher-value IP steps instead of cleanup.

Commercial terms that quietly decide IP outcomes.

Pilot MSAs and enterprise deals can transfer your IP by accident through “improvements” and “feedback” clauses; we teach a five-lever scan and a contractor-owns vs. customer-owns playbook. ElevateIP can help standardize these terms as you scale.

About your keynote speaker:

Joe Gill, Partner, McKercher LLP

Joe is a technology, capital raising, and tax partner with a particular focus on high-growth technology startups, IT contracting for managing digital transformation, and tax structuring for private enterprises and professionals. He has assisted hundreds of prairie technology, innovation, and scientific startups. He works with founders throughout the startup life cycle, from the very early ideation stage, through formation, to growth, scale, and exit. Joe brings a unique approach to his advice, having co-founded a legaltech start-up that participated in Saskatchewan’s first business accelerator program. 

Joe also serves as the lawyer-in-residence for Co.Labs (a technology incubator in Saskatoon), the lawyer-in-residence for Cultivator (a technology incubator in Regina), and a legal coach for Opus (a technology incubator operated by the University of Saskatchewan). He is the Founder and Chair of the firm’s Technology and High Growth Startups Practice Group. He presents to groups in the start-up ecosystem on legal issues such as formation, tax matters, employee incentive planning, privacy and cybersecurity, securing government funding, and raising capital.

Additionally, Joe is listed in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2025 for Saskatoon in the areas of Information Technology Law, Tax Law, and Technology Law. He is also listed in Lexpert as a leading lawyer in Information Technology Law.

McKercher LLP is a contributing sponsor of North Forge