People

Smart & Biggar is Canada’s largest and highest ranked intellectual property firm. Our reputation and strength is a measure of the quality of our people, and we are proud to have the broadest and deepest bench for IP in Canada. With over 180 lawyers, patent agents and trademark agents, we offer legal expertise and technological knowledge across a wide range of industries and scientific and engineering disciplines, with leaders in every field.

Services

Today’s fast-paced innovation economy demands a higher level of expertise and attention to detail when it comes to IP. Our highly skilled team of lawyers, patent agents and trademark agents advise clients on a wide variety of strategic business, brand and technology matters leveraging their deep expertise in intellectual property to help them succeed with IP.

Industries

Across all industries, intellectual property is at the heart of innovation and is key to accelerating business value and growth. Developing a clear IP strategy and knowing how to tap and leverage IP to align with business goals can unlock competitive advantages and make the difference between industry leaders and followers.

Insights

At the forefront of IP in Canada, and actively involved as leaders in industry committees and associations, we stay up-to-date and proactively report on the latest developments in intellectual property law in Canada and around the world. Breaking IP news, changes in the law, important new decisions, and information on key IP issues are provided here through our IP publications and resources.

Careers

Many of the world's most commercially important innovators and most prominent brands trust Smart & Biggar to protect and enforce their IP and to provide them with strategic IP counsel. We have developed a reputation as a firm of talented lawyers and patent and trademark agents with integrity, business savvy and tremendous acumen. That’s why we look for the brightest people with combined talent and strengths in law, business, science and technology.

Who we are

Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada’s leading firm for intellectual property, and with over 180 lawyers, patent agents and trademark agents in six offices, we are also Canada’s largest firm focused purely on IP and related specialty areas.

Rankings & Recognition

Smart & Biggar principal Steven Garland recognized as “best of the best” by Expert Guides

October 11, 2022

Smart & Biggar is proud to announce that firm principal Steven Garland has been recognized among the top lawyers in the world in trademarks and life sciences, respectively, by Expert Guides: Best of the Best, a biennial guide naming the world’s leading lawyers, chosen by their peers.

Steven Garland is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading IP litigators. With over 25 years of trial and appellate experience in all areas of IP and numerous landmark decisions under his belt, Steven brings the level of attention, dedication, and strategy required to be successful for high-calibre clients, representing many of the world's most famous brand owners and personalities.

Steven has earned an outstanding reputation amongst colleagues and clients who view him as an “excellent all-round IP litigator” (MIP IP Stars 2022). He is known as a litigator who “secures significant commendations with his superb handling of IP matters across a multitude of industries.” (WWL: IP 2022, Global Elite Thought Leaders). Steven has been hailed “the full package – he provides innovative legal strategy; he is unflappable in the courtroom and highly effective in cross-examination” (Lexology 2018 Client Choice) and “one of the most versatile trial lawyers in the Canadian IP community” (IAM Patents 1000, 2019). In 2022, Steven was named IP Litigation Lawyer of the Year and a Top 50 Trial Lawyer in Canada by Benchmark Canada, and in 2021 he was named ‘Patent Practitioner of the Year’ by Managing IP. He is also recognized in many other leading peer-reviewed publications including The Best Lawyers in Canada, Chambers Canada and Chambers Global as a Leading Lawyer in IP: Litigation, IAM Patent 1000, Lexpert Special Edition: Technology and Health Sciences, The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, MIP’s IP Stars: Patents, MIP’s IP Stars: Trademarks, and a ‘Global Elite Thought Leader in Patents’ by Who’s Who Legal.

Steven has appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, appellate and trial courts for the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia, and the Patent Appeal Board and the Trademarks Opposition Board.

Expert Guides: Best of the Best compiles the top practitioners in 15 different areas of law. Their methodology involves asking over 4000 senior practitioners and in-house counsel, in more than 70 jurisdictions, to nominate their industry’s top achievers based on their work and reputation.

The full results of Expert Guides: Best of the Best are now available to view.

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.

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