Canadian tech companies pledge to give staff time to get COVID-19 vaccinations
by The Canadian Press
Last Updated Jan 22, 2021 at 11:44 am EDT
TORONTO A growing number of Canadian tech businesses are promising to allow their staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19 on company time.
At least 35 tech companies in the country, including SkipTheDishes, Borrowell, and FreshBooks, have signed a new pledge from the Council of Canadian Innovators vowing to let their staff slip out of work to get the shot.
They say they are keen on giving workers the time because vaccinations are more important than business as usual.
The signatories will try to tackle misinformation by providing reliable information from public health agencies about vaccine safety and efficacy to employees.
Shopify awarded two merchant patents as company continues to ramp up IP activity
In recent weeks, Shopify was awarded two merchant patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The patent approvals come as part of a broader shift in the e-commerce company’s intellectual property strategy, which saw Shopify begin to prioritize protecting its intellectual assets in 2019 as it ramped up competition with Amazon.
“Only in the last few years has Shopify begun to patent their innovation.”
The recently-approved patents, which were both filed by Shopify to the USPTO in 2019, pertain to recommending merchant discussion groups based on merchant categories and platform settings.
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Overcoming COVID-19: What finance leaders at recently-funded tech startups have learned so far
There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a testing year for everyone. According to data from PwC, 53 percent of CFOs expect a decrease in revenue and/or profits of up to 25 percent as a direct result of COVID-19. For many tech startups, that’s the difference between staying alive and closing for good.
With such uncertainty in the air, leadership teams have had to act fast and rethink their entire strategy.
At Procurify, we spoke with 12 CFOs of recently-funded technology startups to hear what they had to say about the impact of COVID-19 on their business, and how they’re intending to re-strategize in response to the pandemic.