Canada

Firm overview

Founded in 2008, BRION RAFFOUL LLP is a leading Canadian IP law boutique firm.

We have a strong Canadian client base that includes universities, Canadian government agencies, multinational corporations, and small, medium, and large Canadian businesses. Our clients operate across a broad spectrum of technical domains, with deep experience in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity,telecommunications, and electronics. We also have a rapidly growing practice in the fields of oil and gas, microbiology, and pharmaceuticals.

BRION RAFFOUL LLP’s team of lawyers and patent and trademark agents are exceptionally skilled in securing and managing IP assets globally. Our patent agents, with backgrounds in engineering and other scientific disciplines, are highly experienced in procuring patents in cutting-edge fields. We offer a complete suite of IP services that includes managing patents, trademarks, and design registrations in Canada, the United States, and worldwide.

Through our robust international network of associates, we protect our clients’ IP assets throughout the world. In addition to our Canadian clients, we represent a broad array of foreign clients seeking to protect their intellectual property in Canada, both directly and through foreign associates.

Since 2014, BRION RAFFOUL LLP has been ranked as one of the top patent prosecution firms in Canada by IAM Patent 1000, which is commonly regarded as the definitive ‘go-to’ resource for those seeking to identify world-class private-practice patent expertise across the world. We have also received IAM’s prestigious silver ranking since 2016. This incredible achievement reflects the continued dedication and expertise of our exceptional team, who have consistently delivered outstanding intellectual property services to our clients. In addition to this prestigious silver ranking, both Natalie Raffoul and Art Brion are recognized as “Highly Recommended Individuals”, and Natalie is recognized as a global IP leader in IAM Strategy 300.

Firm overview

For more than a 125 years, the world’s top companies have looked to Gowling WLG to maximise and protect their treasured intangible assets, both at home and abroad. As the global economy grows ever more knowledge-driven and evolutionary leaps in technology transform the competitive landscape, clients continue to rely on us to help them navigate a changing intellectual property marketplace.

Full lifecycle solutions

Every step on the path to success requires a unique approach to your IP assets. From initial drafting and registration to complex enforcement matters, through to the management and monetisation of large international portfolios, our team is equipped to assist you during the entire lifecycle of your IP assets.

We’re pleased to offer strategies and solutions across the full spectrum of IP rights – with core specialisms in trademarks, brands and designs, patents, enforcement and litigation, IP transactions, trade secrets and copyright, as well as advertising and product regulation.

Borderless support

Home to more than 200 IP practitioners around the world, Gowling WLG protects intangible assets across all industry sectors and in more than 100 countries. We offer prosecution services from our offices in Canada, China, the UAE and – via our exclusive association with JurisAsia – Singapore. We match these services with robust enforcement capabilities from these offices, as well from our offices throughout Europe. This platform is complemented by an expansive network of established relationships with some of the top IP practices worldwide – ensuring you receive the very best advice wherever business takes you.

Experience you can trust

From new applications for artificial intelligence to major breakthroughs in pharmacology, it’s vital that your IP adviser be able to recognize the full value of your IP. Harnessing advanced career and educational backgrounds in science, engineering and technology, we work closely with you to develop fulsome strategies for even the most intricate inventions. This is just one of the reasons why, year after year, our professionals are recognised by some of the world’s most respected legal publications.

End-to-end legal services for your business

Outside of our IP service offering, Gowling WLG is equipped to advise you in virtually every area of law relevant to business. For our clients, including other IP firms with whom we work around the world, this is a unique benefit. Beyond the convenience of working with a single service provider, our holistic approach ensures your IP strategy neatly aligns with other areas of your business – from privacy and employment to commercial transactions.

Discover how we can help protect what makes your business unique. Contact a member of our team today.

Firm overview

Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada’s leading firm for intellectual property law. With offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver and Calgary, and over 100 lawyers, patent agents and trademark agents, we are also the largest firm focused purely on IP and related specialty areas. We have a history and tradition of providing the highest quality of IP advisory services and have filed more patent and trademark applications than any firm in Canada.

Smart & Biggar's decades of experience in intellectual property, combined with deep knowledge and expertise across a wide range of technologies and industries, allows them to provide clients with clarity on opportunities and solutions to leverage and maximize IP. No other Canadian firm can claim a stronger track record of victories in intellectual property litigation for its clients than Smart & Biggar. The firm prides itself on providing clients with the rare combination of successful trial experience, deep subject matter expertise and sophisticated and practical skills and analysis.

Smart & Biggar has the honour of working with many of Canada’s and the world’s most important innovators and brand owners. The firm is proud to have supported their clients on the road to market leadership — from start-up companies in emerging growth sectors to multinational corporations, as well as innovators at universities and other research institutions – advising them on their most critical and complex IP matters. Smart & Biggar continuously invests in client relationships, and many of the firm's clients have entrusted them with protecting, enforcing and commercializing their IP rights. Whether advising an innovative manufacturer on patent strategy or infringement issues, providing counsel on brand protection and enforcement, or handling the IP aspects of a corporate transaction, Smart & Biggar always ensures that clients receive the full benefit of their unrivaled IP experience and expertise.

Since 1890, Smart & Biggar has remained devoted to protecting our clients' intellectual property and technology assets, and advising clients on how to uncover and maximize available opportunities. The firm is committed to providing expert counsel and guidance to safeguard our clients’ competitive position and help them build and enforce strategic intellectual property and technology rights that will create more value for their business.

Smart & Biggar proudly operates as part of the IPH Limited group, under its own brand and independent from other IPH member firms.

Firm overview

Osler’s top-ranked Intellectual Property team is renowned for its deep bench strength, featuring excellence in IP litigation; a stellar record in blockbuster patent and trade-mark prosecution; expertise in portfolio advising and management; and unmatched experience in helping realize the value of IP portfolios in mergers, reorganizations and other business transactions.

The team has a well-earned international reputation for excellence in Canadian IP litigation, including cross-border matters, built on our winning trial record representing some of the world’s most prominent companies and innovators in resolving their ground-breaking patent, copyright and trade-mark disputes in Canada.  

Osler’s Intellectual Property professionals offer proven expertise and superior service for clients of all sizes across a broad range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotech, technology, life sciences, electronics, aeronautics, consumer products, sports and entertainment, food services, and mechanical, chemical and software engineering.

We have extensive experience in drafting, filing, prosecuting and maintaining patent and industrial design applications in Canada, including for leading Canadian and multinational companies. Our patent agents, most of whom are PhD or Masters qualified, are highly proficient in dealing with patent protection and patent avoidance issues in the design, engineering and manufacturing of products, and particularly products to be distributed simultaneously in multiple jurisdictions. We regularly conduct freedom-to-operate studies and render opinions in respect of Canadian patents for our clients.

Osler has in-depth experience in clearing, registering, maintaining and enforcing trade-mark rights in Canada and internationally, on managing domestic and international portfolios for leading Canadian and global corporations and in successfully representing clients’ interests before the courts and intellectual property administrative tribunals. We also service an extensive network of foreign law and agency firms, assisting those firms in protecting the Canadian rights of their clients. For many consecutive years, Osler has been among the top filers of trade-mark applications with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”).

Osler’s Intellectual Property team also represents clients in disputes and litigation involving copyright (including infringement claims, ownership disputes and Copyright Board tariff proceedings), trade-marks (including infringement claims, expungement proceedings and Trade-Mark Opposition Board proceedings), domain names, trade secrets/confidential information, anti-counterfeiting and misleading advertising.