Canada’s Intellectual Property Firm

Rankings & Recognition

Smart & Biggar's IP litigation leaders top the rankings again in 2023 Benchmark Canada Guide

Smart & Biggar is proud to announce that Benchmark Litigation has recognized our firm once again as a leader for Intellectual Property (IP) Litigation in Canada.

This year, ten of Smart & Biggar’s leading Principals are featured as “Litigation Stars” in the 2023 Benchmark Canada Guide in addition to three Principals who are identified as “Future Stars” for IP Litigation in Canada. Included in the firm’s coverage by Benchmark, Principals Steven Garland and François Guay were featured among the Top 50 Trial lawyers in Canada.

Editors at Benchmark praised Smart & Biggar as “Canada’s deepest and most renowned intellectual property law firm” with a dominant position in Canada’s IP community as “true trial lawyers” that are “revered for a range of experience and landmark wins” across all areas of IP litigation including trademarks, patents, and copyrights.

In our firm’s client and industry coverage, Benchmark highlighted that Smart & Biggar is revered for its “range of experience covering patents, trademarks and copyrights, each being areas in which the firm has secured some landmark wins.” The firm’s “patent practice” is also celebrated with heavy coverage in the pharmaceutical industry alongside a “diverse portfolio of patent victories from polymers to hockey helmets” and in the trademark practice, for a list of clients that reads like a “who’s who” of household names.

Within the IP litigation community, peers enthused “Smart & Biggar has a pretty stellar record of winning at trial” and declared “There are IP lawyers and there are IP litigators. Smart & Biggar definitely qualifies for the latter designation.” 

Special mention is given to our litigation team’s successful representation in one of the “most substantial and hard-fought pieces of non-pharmaceutical-related patent litigation in Canada” in the milestone victory for Dow Chemicals in November 2022. In an 8-1 majority ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the record-setting $645M patent infringement award in Dow v Nova. As reported previously, this was and remains the largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history. Dow was represented by Smart & Biggar with Steven Garland, Jeremy Want, Daniel Davies, Matthew Burt and Nicole Boyle acting as counsel.

Congratulations to each of our leading IP Litigation lawyers on this outstanding recognition!

  • Mark Biernacki, Toronto, Litigation Star
  • Daniel Davies, Ottawa, Future Star
  • Jean-Sébastien Dupont, Montréal, Litigation Star
  • Mark Evans, Toronto, Litigation Star
  • Steven Garland, Ottawa, Litigation Star / Top 50 Trial Lawyer
  • François Guay, Montréal, Litigation Star / Top 50 Trial Lawyer
  • Sheldon Hamilton, Toronto, Litigation Star
  • Graham Hood, Toronto, Future Star
  • Yoon Kang, Toronto, Litigation Star
  • Evan Nuttall, Calgary, Litigation Star
  • Nancy Pei, Toronto, Litigation Star
  • Jeremy Want, Ottawa, Litigation Star
  • Urszula Wojtyra, Toronto, Future Star

Benchmark’s full review of Smart & Biggar is available to view online now.

About Smart & Biggar

Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada’s leading intellectual property firm, with offices in Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. We are leaders in intellectual property and have been serving clients for over a century. Smart & Biggar operates as part of the IPH Limited group, under its own brand and independent from other IPH member firms.