About

Peter Cowan is the founder of Northworks IP, and co-founder of the Innovation Asset Collective.

Northworks IP was founded to help companies maximize value of their IP assets through a business focused approach to IP.

Innovation Asset Collective is a Non-profit organization responsible the $30M Patent Collective Pilot Program, supported by the Government of Canada. As a core component of Canada’s 2018 National IP Strategy, IAC brings businesses together to help them make the most strategic use of their intellectual property through IP education, IP Intelligence and Prior Art access, IP grant funding, and generation of a Freedom to Operate patent pool.

He has created and led the growth of technology innovation and IP programs in companies from new startups to large multi-national companies.  He has worked with executives, inventors and technical teams across eight countries to help identify and protect their breakthrough innovations, across both mature and emerging markets.  His breadth of knowledge extends into areas of software, hardware, firmware, HMI, architectures, smart grid, internet, and networked systems. In addition to his business background, he has a wide range of technical skills and is a listed inventor on over 70 filed patents (30+ families).

For several years running (2014-2021) Peter has been nominated by his peers and was listed in the IAM Strategy 300 as one of the worlds leading IP strategists, a list researched and published by the London UK based IAM Magazine.  In his past, Peter was co-founder/CEO of a sports technology startup, as well as on the executive team of an internet-based investment startup during the dot-com boom. In parallel he worked with a high-growth technology firm to develop and grow their IP Portfolio to position it for acquisition. He was a Sr. Manager (Innovation & Patents) for Schneider Electric, a Global Fortune 400  company, where he lead the strategic planning of the patent portfolio at several levels in the organization, and developed and lead Innovation Programs for new businesses.

Peter brings value to businesses through his approach to patent strategy, innovation and technology development, and the shaping of the organizational culture required to build high-growth companies. He advises businesses on making better strategic decisions about their  IP assets, and then assist in the execution of the decisions to make a measurable impact on the business.

Peter holds his B.Eng from the University of Victoria, his MBA (Entrepreneurship) from the University of Victoria, and his LLM (Intellectual Property) from York University in Toronto.

More details can be seen on his Linked-in Profile.