NEWS RELEASE
CEMI and Marks & Clerk announce new partnership to bring Intellectual Property expertise to the MICA Network
A new associate partnership named Marks & Clerk as the preferred provider of intellectual property (IP) services to MICA Network members, including IP strategy and IP execution, and mining-focused education through IP workshops and monthly expert IP advisory sessions.
GREATER SUDBURY and TORONTO, ON (July 14, 2026) — The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), which manages the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network, and Marks & Clerk, a leading international intellectual property firm with Canadian offices in Toronto and Ottawa, have today announced a new associate partnership agreement to provide intellectual property support across Canada's mining innovation ecosystem.
Under the agreement, Marks & Clerk will serve as the preferred provider of intellectual property services to the MICA Network and its members, giving Canadian mining innovators direct access to its team of intellectual property lawyers, trademark agents and patent agents who can provide legal, technical, and commercial expertise to help them secure, protect and maximize their intellectual property assets. The partnership runs for an initial term of 24 months.
Launched in July 2021, the MICA Network is a $300M national innovation ecosystem supported by the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund, dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of late-stage mining innovation technologies. Adding dedicated intellectual property expertise will facilitate Canadian ownership and control of newly developed technologies and underlying IP, which contributes to Canada’s sovereignty and economic resilience by safeguarding resource extraction technologies, processing capabilities and critical minerals supply chains.
The collaboration includes a range of Intellectual Property programming and support for MICA members, provided exclusively by Marks & Clerk, including:
Mining-focused IP Workshops: A minimum of two jointly designed workshops each year, developed and delivered for the MICA Network.
Expert IP advisory "Office Hours": Monthly advisory sessions offering MICA members general guidance on intellectual property matters, supported by a shared process to validate and prioritize member inquiries.
IP Success Measurement & Knowledge sharing: Joint reporting on progress and shared dissemination of IP success stories from across the ecosystem.
Ecosystem engagement with IP experts: Side-by-side participation at CEMI events and coordinated outreach to mining, technology, and community stakeholders to connect them with IP experts.
"Today, more than 90% of the value of leading global companies resides in intellectual property and other intangible assets-not in their buildings, equipment, or operations. If Canada is serious about building globally competitive mining technology companies, we must help innovators not only develop breakthrough solutions but also protect and commercialize the intellectual property that underpins their long-term success. Our partnership with Marks & Clerk is an important step in strengthening that capability across the mining innovation ecosystem."
Douglas Morrison, President & CEO, CEMI
"Innovation alone is not enough. To compete globally, Canadian companies must be able to protect, commercialize, and scale their technologies. Our partnership with Marks & Clerk strengthens the support ecosystem available to MICA members and helps ensure that Canadian mining innovations capture maximum value both at home and abroad."
Chamirai Charles Nyabeze, Network Director, MICA Network
"Canada is rich with natural resources and Canadian mining companies are highly innovative and rich in intangible assets-from proprietary technologies to specialized know-how and data and AI. Marks & Clerk can help MICA member companies transform intangibles into intellectual property assets that can be leveraged for significant commercial advantage. We can help them identify and protect what makes each technology unique with IP, enabling collaboration across clusters, and positioning them to scale confidently into national and global supply chains."
Kevin Shipley, Partner, Marks & Clerk Canada
"We bring deep expertise and experience working with innovative Canadian companies involved in metallurgy, critical minerals and mining, along with comprehensive intellectual property advice and IP protection strategies at home and abroad. We look forward to sharing our expertise with members of the MICA Network to help them protect their IP in this important sector of the Canadian economy".
Van Vekris, Partner, Marks & Clerk Canada
About CEMI and MICA
The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 2007 to accelerate the commercialization of mining innovations. CEMI manages the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network, a national initiative that supports the scale-up and commercialization of late-stage mining technologies in Canada and internationally.
Learn more: www.cemi.ca | www.micanetwork.ca
About Marks & Clerk
Marks & Clerk is a leading international intellectual property firm with Canadian offices in Toronto, Ottawa, and a network of offices in the UK, Europe, and Asia. For more than 130 years, Marks & Clerk has worked in partnership with businesses of all shapes and sizes, around the world and across industry sectors, to protect, enforce and maximise the value of their intellectual property to support them in achieving their business ambitions. Our expert team of lawyers, patent and trademark agents have experience across all areas of IP including patents, designs, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and support clients with advisory and agency services from IP strategy and execution to commercialization, enforcement and litigation.
Learn more: www.marks-clerk.com
Media Contacts
CEMI and MICA
Marketing & Communications marketing@cemi.ca
Olivia Lynch
Marketing and Communications Specialist, Marks & Clerk olynch@marks-clerk.ca