With a storied record of success, Steven is a highly regarded litigator, recognized for his leading expertise in complex intellectual property matters

Head of the firm's National Intellectual Property Litigation Group, Steven acts as lead counsel on some of the largest, most high profile intellectual property cases in Canada. His focus is on developing creative, client-focused strategies and solutions that help clients protect their interests and achieve their objectives.

As a litigator first and foremost, Steven is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer who brings an unconventional way of thinking to contentious IP matters. He is trusted by clients to resolve complicated patent, copyright, regulatory, and trade secrets disputes and respected for his litigation skills by peers of the IP Bar. Chambers Canada: Canada’s Leading Lawyers for Business remarked that Steven “is widely regarded by the market as a ‘great courtroom litigator’" in their 2018 edition.

Supporting in-house counsel at multinational organizations across a range of industries, Steven has acted as lead counsel in many prominent cases, appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Superior and Appellate Courts of British Columbia and Ontario and the Federal Court of Canada. Some of his notable experience includes:

• represented the National Football League and Bell Media as lead counsel in a historic Supreme Court of Canada case that overturned the CRTC's decision to ban substitution of American commercials during the Super Bowl;
• secured one of the largest patent damages award in Canadian history as lead counsel for Merck against Apotex involving the drug Mevacor;
• represented Bell Canada in the successful defence of a patent infringement action involving Bell's IPTV service FibeTV;
• represented Nickelback in successfully defending a copyright infringement claim involving the song Burn it to the Ground
• represented an international group of copyright organizations and professors in American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., 573 U.S. _ (2014) before the Supreme Court of the United States;
• counsel to bell Bell Media in a copyright infringement action against VMedia that raised the issue of whether streaming live television over the internet is permissible under the Copyright Act without the copyright owner's consent; and
• represents a number of innovative pharmaceutical companies in high stakes, mission critical patent litigation matters, regularly achieving positive, often precedent-setting, outcomes.

Steven is an adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Faculty of Law where he has taught intellectual property law for more than a decade. Frequently invited to speak about topics in the field of intellectual property litigation, he enjoys sharing his wealth of experience to mentor young lawyers. He also co-authored Intellectual Property Law in Canada: Cases and Commentary (Carswell, 2nd ed. 2013) as well as Copyright: Cases and Commentary on the Canadian and International Law (Carswell, 2nd ed. 2013).

Steven also practised for several years at a large law firm in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California where he specialized in patent litigation.

Steven is admitted to practice before all courts in Canada, as well as the United States District Court (N.D. Cal.), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, the Court of International Trade and the United States Supreme Court. He is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the State Bar of California.

Recent Appellate Experience

Supreme Court of Canada:

• Bell Canada and National Football League v. Canada, 2019 SCC 66
• Sanofi-Aventis Canada Inc. v. Apotex Inc., 2015 SCC 20
• Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 v. Irving Pulp & Paper, Ltd., 2013 SCC 34
• Broadcasting Order CRTC 2010-168, 2012 SCC 68

Supreme Court of the United States:

• American Broadcasting Co.'s v. Aereo Inc., 573 US __ (2014)

Federal Court of Appeal:

• Elson v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 FCA 27
• Mediatube Corp. v. Bell Canada, 2019 FCA 176
• Bell Canada and Bell Media v. 7262591 Canada Ltd., et al, 2018 FCA 174
• Bristol Myers Squibb Canada Co. Teva Canada Ltd., 2017 FCA 76
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co. v. Apotex Inc., 2017 FCA 190
• Bell Canada and National Football League v. Attorney General of Canada, 2017 FCA 249
• National Football League v. Attorney General of Canada, 2016 FCA 217
• Apotex v. Merck Inc., 2015 FCA 151
• Apotex v. Allergan Inc., 2015 FCA 137
• Janssen Inc. v. Abbvie Corporation, 2014 FCA 241 and 242

Ontario Court of Appeal:

• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals v. City of Toronto and Astral Media Outdoors Ltd., 2020 ONSC 2356 (Div. Ct.)
• Apotex Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories Ltd., 2018 ONCA 332
• Apotex Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories Ltd., 2013 ONCA 555
• Sabre Inc. v. International Air Transport Association, 2011 ONCA 747

British Columbia Court Appeal:

• isoHunt Web Technologies Inc. v. EMI Group Canada Inc., 2009 BCCA 618