Smart & Biggar wins big at the 2022 MIP Awards as Canada’s ‘IP Boutique Firm of the Year’
Smart & Biggar was honoured at this year’s Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) North America Awards 2022, receiving three top firm awards and an “Impact Case of the Year” honour.
Affirming our leading position in the Canadian market, Smart & Biggar was named Canada’s “IP Boutique Firm of the Year” for the third consecutive year by, marking the eighth win in this category for the firm since the inception of the MIP Awards. The firm was also recognized with “Firm of the Year” awards for both Trademark Contentious and Patent Prosecution in Canada.
Smart & Biggar earned the Patent Prosecution Firm of the Year award for its top-level patent portfolio management, filing and overall strategy work for innovation-focused clients. The firm impressed MIPs researchers with its deep bench of experienced patent practitioners servicing clients in the energy, technology, consumer goods, life sciences and aerospace industries, among other areas.
For the Trademark Contentious category, our leading Trademark Litigation and Enforcement team stood out as “Firm of the Year” for numerous high-profile cases and notably for successfully representing client Pampered Chef and Columbia Insurance against trademark infringement claims brought by Loblaws in what was a closely watched case at the Federal Court of Appeal in Loblaws Inc v Columbia Insurance Company. The award-winning litigation team included Mark Evans, Steve Garland, Mark Biernacki, Graham Hood, Tierney Deluzio and Noelle Engle-Hardy, who also earned an “Impact Case of the Year” award for the matter.
“The strength of Smart & Biggar’s broad-based IP offering should be evident through these award wins, especially if you look at the dominance the firm has had over the IP Boutique Firm category. This is a high honor to take home for a firm any year, and Smart & Biggar just secured the title for the third year running. I send my most sincere congratulations to all of the firm’s practitioners for another job well-done and some seriously deserving wins for the firm and its clients.”
MIP Americas research editor Chris Adams
In addition to these wins, the firm was also recognized as a finalist in other categories for Canada, including Patent Contentious Firm of the Year, Trademark Prosecution Firm of the Year, IP Transactions Firm of the Year, and two Practitioner of the Year nominations for Mark Evans and Steven Garland.
Smart & Biggar has long been recognized by MIP as the firm has proudly received previous awards from MIP that include ‘Firm of the Year’ awards for Patent Prosecution in 2021, Trademark Contentious in 2020 and 2017, Patent Contentious in 2018, and ‘IP Boutique Firm of the Year’ in Canada in 2021 and 2020.
The full list of MIP North America Award winners is available to view online.
About Smart & Biggar
Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada’s leading firm for intellectual property law, with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver and Calgary. We are leaders in intellectual property and technology law and have been serving clients for over a century.