Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh - International Law Office

Work Areas

Biotech and Pharmaceutical, Computer & Information Technology, Computers & Software, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Licensing, Litigation, Litigation - Intellectual Property, Patent and trade-mark agency services, Patents, Pharmaceuticals, Trademark, Trademark Law

Firm Description

Smart & Biggar and Fetherstonhaugh together form Canada’s largest practice devoted exclusively to IP and technology law. We provide our clients with a combined depth of legal experience and technical expertise matched by no other firm in the country. As a result, we are able to provide and leverage the right skills, knowledge, resources and solutions — all to our clients’ competitive advantage.

Global reach...national presence

With offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, we are located in Canada’s major commercial and technological centres. We have direct access to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the ability to litigate throughout Canada in the Federal Court, as well as in the provincial common law and civil law courts. We are therefore able to efficiently satisfy all of our clients’ IP needs across Canada.

Since the founding of the firm, our practice has been worldwide. We therefore have the sophisticated ability and experience to deal with intellectual property on a global basis. In addition to English and French, we offer capabilities in many languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, German, Korean, Spanish, Italian and Russian. We also have professionals who are qualified to practice before the U.S., U.K. and European patent offices.

Unequalled depth

Over the years, our practice has been continually recognized as the benchmark for Canadian IP law. Virtually every member of our firm has an engineering or scientific background, and dozens of our practitioners also have post-graduate degrees in their respective areas of practice. This, combined with business know-how, legal talent and expertise, is the hallmark of our practice.

Our technical depth and understanding of the law mean that we can very efficiently understand, analyze and articulate the subtleties of our clients’ innovations and rights with confidence. Whether we are drafting a patent application for a cutting-edge electronic advancement, negotiating a complex biotechnology-based multinational licence agreement, or successfully arguing for pharmaceutical trade dress protection before the Supreme Court of Canada, our analytical training and depth of experience in all technical areas enable us to identify and exploit otherwise unknown competitive opportunities to obtain the best possible IP protection.

Strength in litigation

Our partners include many of Canada’s top IP litigators, and they have handled a significant share of Canada’s most commercially important and technically complex intellectual property cases. Having represented clients in the Supreme Court of Canada on more than 50 occasions, many of these cases are landmark Canadian IP decisions.

We represent clients in both the common law and civil law courts in Canada, in both official languages and at the highest appellate levels. We also have considerable experience in multi-jurisdictional cases, not only tenaciously representing clients before the courts in Canada, but also coordinating litigation worldwide. While we have an outstanding record in the courtroom, we also understand that at certain times obtaining a swift and favourable settlement without resorting to litigation can be the most desirable commercial solution.

We take pride in striking a balance between our senior partners’ depth of experience and the technical credentials of our younger partners and associates. This allows us to match the best person or team of any size, background or from any location to a client’s specific needs, ensuring that our clients receive the full benefit of our unparalleled approach to IP.

Leadership

As intellectual property law and technology change, so do our clients' needs. We therefore understand the importance of being at the forefront of intellectual property developments and advising our clients on the impact of these developments on their business.

From the day Russel Smart, Sr. authored Canada's first text on trade-marks and designs, our partners have been among the most active contributors to intellectual property literature. Our international IP expertise is also enhanced by the active role of our professionals, at the board and committee levels, of leading organizations such as AIPPI, AIPLA, FICPI, INTA, IPIC and MARQUES, to name a few. We have also participated in the drafting of domestic intellectual property legislation and advised the Canadian government on international diplomatic agreements.

Our Toronto office offers a full complement of technical capabilities, as well as litigation expertise in the Ontario Courts and Federal Courts of Canada. Our Toronto office is also closely integrated with our offices in Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver, thereby allowing for coordinated activity across Canada, as well as the ability to draw on the extensive technical depth of others in the firm in all disciplines so as to effectively protect and exploit our clients' intellectual property rights.

Lawyer Biographies

Chen, Junyi; Elyjiw, Peter A; Evans, Mark K; Faggetter, Ronald D; Ferguson, Kyle A Gaikis, Gunars A; Hamilton, J Sheldon; Hemming, Sally A; Isaac, Brian P; Kang, Yoon; Mandlsohn, Andrew; Pei, Nancy P; Prévost, Geneviève M; Robertson, Heather E; Sim, Keltie R; Simpson, Alistair G; Stott, Tracey L; Sutton, Jayda A; Wojtyra, Urszula; Zischka, Matthew;