Maximizing the value of our clients’ most important assets

Our Intellectual Property (“IP”) Group combines deep technical expertise with insights gained as a fully-integrated national team to offer clients options for protecting, managing and growing their foundational IP. Unlike siloed IP practices, our team seamlessly coordinates with other practices and industry groups within our firm.

With the education and experience to protect your innovations, our lawyers have the business acumen to maximize the value of your IP portfolios, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs and trade secrets. 

We have expertise to manage the full range of IP issues arising in:

• advertising, branding and marketing.
• agreements, including license agreements, distribution agreements and other IP-related agreements;
• blockchain and cryptocurrencies;
• computer software;
• food, device, drug and product regulation;
• innovation and invention;
• internet law;
• life sciences;
• market-related challenges;
• mergers and acquisitions;
• open-source software;
• pharmaceuticals;
• privacy and publicity rights;
• research and development;
• technology transfer.

Protecting your innovations

Many of our IP lawyers hold advanced degrees in engineering, computer science, life sciences, chemistry and other sciences. Members of our group are fully proficient in the filing, prosecution and enforcement of all forms of IP rights, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and industrial designs, in Canada and internationally. We regularly advise clients on the ongoing management of their worldwide IP portfolios.

Adept handling of complex commercial agreements and transactions

We frequently negotiate commercial sale, purchase and licensing agreements involving patents, trademarks and other forms of IP. We also advise on day-to-day matters, such as brand management, franchising licence contracts, distribution agreements, infringement disputes and more.

We advise IP rights holders in a wide variety of transactions, working closely with our colleagues in the firm’s corporate and commercial practices, to ensure that the value of IP is fully understood and accounted for in corporate commercial transactions.

Insightful thought leadership on new challenges

Our lawyers are particularly comfortable operating at the intersection of IP law and the new economy. IP rights inform developments in a range of related fields, such as privacy, internet law, e-commerce and more. Members of our IP Group are trailblazers in multiple emerging sectors and have been recognized for their thought leadership in areas such as cybersecurity, online privacy, artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud computing. In addition, we provide useful commentary on IP issues across our SnIP/ITs and Canadian Appeals Monitor blogs.

Leading IP litigators 

Clients count on our esteemed IP litigators to enforce their rights before federal and provincial courts, at both trial and appellate levels, in all areas of IP law. We coordinate litigation strategies across multiple jurisdictions, and we are the only Canadian firm to be recognized as counsel of record on a US Supreme Court amicus brief. We have also represented clients before the Supreme Court of Canada 10 times in the past 12 years.

Ranked among the best in the world

International and national ranking publications in patents, trademarks, copyright, computer and information technology have cited our lawyers as thought leaders in their field.