B.C. Patent Box for the Life Sciences Sector
open
Survey is open until June 24, 2026
Overview
Dates: May 12 to June 24
Who: The Ministry of Finance
What: A patent box for the life sciences sector
Where: Province-wide
Why: To explore the suitability of adopting a patent box for the life sciences sector in B.C.
How: Written submissions, online survey
Engagement summary
Patent boxes are a way governments can encourage innovation by providing a tax incentive for income earned from intellectual property. For example, a business that researches and develops scientific advancements in medicine might want their facility to be in B.C. if there is a tax incentive (patent box) for their work.
The Province is engaging with interested and affected parties to explore whether adopting a patent box could support the growth of B.C.’s life sciences sector, and whether the tax system can help encourage the commercialization of intellectual property in the province.
“Life sciences” refers to fields that involve the scientific study of living organisms. British Columbia’s life sciences sector includes contract research firms, testing and medical labs, and companies that develop, produce or sell medical devices, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, and other medicinal substances or compounds.
The Province is seeking feedback about designing and administering a patent box that is competitive and effective for the life sciences sector.
Read the discussion paper (PDF, 200KB) and provide feedback either through the online survey or by providing a written submission (see below).
Written Submissions
Organizations and professionals in the life sciences sector can also provide a written submission in response to the discussion paper (PDF, 200KB) to BCPatentBox@gov.bc.ca.
Please include your organization’s focus in your written submissions to help us situate your feedback. Written submissions should be no longer than ten pages in Word or PDF format.
Submissions must meet the following criteria:
- Does not contain profanity or content that is defamatory, threatening, hateful, personally disparaging, harassing, indecent, vulgar, obscene, illegal, immoral or sexually explicit (partially masking profanity or other unacceptable language by substituting asterisks or other symbols into a word is not acceptable if the word remains recognizable)
- Does not appear to, or actually, infringe the copyright, trademark, right of privacy, right of publicity or any other intellectual property or other proprietary right of any third party
- Does not contain information about, or images (e.g., photographs, videos or illustrations) of, any person other than the person submitting the content
- Does not advertise any product, person or organization, or direct attention to another website for personal gain
- Does not provide links to, or information about, other sites that contain unlawful, objectionable or inappropriate content
- Does not make unproven or unsupported accusations against individuals, groups or organizations
- Does not appear to be spam-like messaging, a repeat posting or a template letter writing campaign
- Is not far off-topic
All submissions will be read and considered as part of an Engagement summary report.
How your contribution makes a difference
Your contributions will help inform us about the suitability of a B.C. patent box for the life sciences sector.
Related engagements
