A key element of the value for most businesses today involves some aspect of intellectual property rights. For some companies, the intellectual property rights represent THE value in the business. For other companies, the only real barrier to competition is the brand, of which the trademark is often an integral component.

“Intellectual Property” refers to the tangible manifestations of the human imagination, expressed in inventions (protected by patent), works of authorship such as literature, artistic works such as paintings and sculpture (protected by copyright), other written materials (protected by copyright and potentially, by confidential information or trade secret), music (protected by copyright), and logos, designs or words used in business (protected by trademark and possibly, copyright).

There is no protection for ideas as such, but rather, protection is given for the expression of ideas in a tangible form.

Our practice in the field of intellectual property rights law in Canada spans the areas of copyright, trademarks, and confidential information.

While it may be convenient to lump these areas together, the laws of copyright, trademarks, confidential information, and patents evolved differently, at different times, covering different activities, and having different rules.

We represent both employers and investors, as well as innovators including scientists, engineers, architects, professors, doctors, developers, artists, sculptors, writers, film makers, and dreamers creating in various fields including hardware, software, and the fine arts.

While laws in the area of tangible real property and personal property involve exclusivity of ownership to the exclusion of others, intellectual property rights laws, because of the intangible aspects involved, can enable widespread sharing to numerous persons, through licensing of the same asset.

With over 25 years of expertise, we have worked with clients involved in world-class innovation. We regularly advise clients on matters relating to appropriate confidentiality agreements (they are not all the same and context, as usual, is everything), development and ownership of inventions, identification, registration, protection, and commercialization of intellectual property rights assets, intellectual property rights acquisitions, licensing and cross-licensing, related due diligence, and the full range of agreements relating to these areas.

In an era when the engagement of independent consultants is used by almost every business to develop or create intellectual property rights assets, clarifying ownership rights can be essential to a company’s success.

We work with our clients in a strategic manner to address these and other, often complex and nuanced, issues in the creation, assembly, and commercialization of core intellectual property rights assets.