Sylvain Laporte Appointed to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 8, 2011) - The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today announced the appointment of Sylvain Laporte as Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, effective April 16, 2011.

"I am confident that Mr. Laporte's broad experience, both at Industry Canada and across government, will strengthen the good work being done at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office," said Minister Clement. "I would also like to thank the outgoing Commissioner, Mary Carman, for her contributions over the past four years."

Mr. Laporte joined Industry Canada in March 2007 as the Chief Informatics Officer. In 2008, he became Executive Director of the Industrial Technologies Office and was responsible for managing the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative as well as projects contracted under Technology Partnerships Canada, the Hydrogen Early Adopters Program and the Program for Strategic Industrial Projects. Before joining Industry Canada, he worked at the Canada Post Corporation, occupying a number of director-level positions in such sectors as logistics, retail merchandising, marketing and information technology. Mr. Laporte also worked at National Defence in Ottawa and across Canada.

Mr. Laporte holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean and a master's degree in computer engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office, a Special Operating Agency of Industry Canada, is responsible for the administration and processing of the greater part of intellectual property in Canada.