22 | Intellectual Property
Karayannides,
George J.
Clyde & Co Canada LLP
(647) 789-4831
george.karayannides@
clydeco.ca
Mr. Karayannides's
commercial litigation
practice embraces
business disputes,
shareholder remedies,
fraud, IP, product
liability and class
actions. His clients
include corporations,
manufacturers,
institutional investors
and individuals.
Kay, Katherine L.
Stikeman Elliott LLP
(416) 869-5507
kkay@stikeman.com
Ms. Kay focuses on
complex commercial
litigation, often
involving the interplay
between regulatory,
civil and criminal law
regimes across multiple
jurisdictions. Widely
recognized for her
expertise in competition,
class-action defence
and securities.
Kent, Andrew J.F.
McMillan LLP
(416) 865-7160
andrew.kent@
mcmillan.ca
Mr. Kent's practice
includes both national
and international
business restructurings.
He has been repeatedly
recognized as one of
Canada's leading lawyers.
Kauff man, Aubrey E.
Fasken Martineau
DuMoulin LLP
(416) 868-3538
akauff man@fasken.com
Mr. Kauff man acts
for court offi cers,
debtors and creditors
on advocacy matters
related to domestic
and cross-border
bankruptcy, insolvency
and restructuring
proceedings. He is
an IIC director and a
former chair of the OBA's
Insolvency Section.
Keefe, John A.
Goodmans LLP
(416) 597-4268
jkeefe@goodmans.ca
Mr. Keefe focuses
on international
commercial disputes,
white-collar crime,
corruption, securities
fraud, and domestic and
international arbitration.
He regularly advises
boards on governance
issues and conducts
internal investigations.
Kent, David W.
McMillan LLP
(416) 865-7143
david.kent@mcmillan.ca
Mr. Kent focuses on
complex litigation
involving domestic and
cross-border competition,
commercial, securities
and governance cases,
including class actions
across many issues
and industries. He also
advises on and litigates
music copyright issues.
LEXPERT®Ranked Lawyers
"WITH THE SUCCESS OF THE OIL SANDS AND
THE INCREASING NUMBER OF PLAYERS IN THE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR, IT SEEMS
LIKELY THAT THE GROWTH [IN IP LITIGATION]
WILL CONTINUE [IN THESE SECTORS]."
– David Aitken, Aitken Klee LLP
One area gaining
steam is patent liti-
gation coming out of
the oil patch, which
has always been a
pretty fertile ground
for innovators and
for patentees."
" ere are all sorts
of reasons why a patentee might want to sue, because ulti-
mately the patent's a commercial asset," says Garland. Perhaps
the goal is to exclude others from practising that technology,
be the only business with that product in the marketplace,
or license the technology. "But sometimes you're not really
getting people engaged on the issue unless you actually have
to assert your exclusive rights, even if the goal downstream is
to come up with some kind of a commercial arrangement."
Alberta's economy is humming and it's a very entrepre-
neurial-type mindset of people there, adds Garland. row
into the equation "several cases where a patentee oil and gas
case has been successful and led to some pretty signifi cant
damage awards, and you see a signifi cant rise in patent liti-
gation based on oil and gas-related technology and related
technologies," he says.
Aitken agrees on the non-pharma IP litigation side, there's
growth in a number of industry sectors, including oil and gas
and telecommunications. "With the success of the oil sands and
the increasing number of players in the telecommunications sec-
tor, it seems likely that the growth will continue," he says.
However, in the non-pharma sectors, he says, "litigation
is likely to remain largely episodic, usually arising in a hotly
competitive industry sector serviced by players using simi-
lar technology and
having suffi ciently
deep pockets to
acquire, maintain
and enforce a pat-
ent portfolio." Yet
these circumstances
do not come along
every day, he points
out, making it diffi cult to determine whether a spike in the
number of oil and gas cases is a random phenomenon, or is
indicative of a longer-term trend.
"We're returning to a more traditional paradigm of what
dictates when you sue," says Aitken. "Which is 'do you have
a patent and is it infringed and can you recover your legals?'
It's not being driven because that's what you have to do to get
on the market."
Still, any shi needs to be put into context, he says, sug-
gesting that the incentive to litigate pharmaceuticals in
Canada will not go away in the short term. "Drug patent
litigation is driven by a patent regulatory scheme that virtu-
ally entrenches patent litigation as a necessary component
of the regulatory process. So long as the present regulatory
scheme remains in place, pharmaceuticals will continue to
be hotly litigated."
Several other fairly recent trends in patent litigation of in-
terest to businesspeople – and potentially their chequebooks
– are as a direct result of actions undertaken by the Federal
Court of Canada. According to Ronald Dimock, founding
partner of Toronto-based intellectual property law fi rm Di-
mock Stratton LLP, a "top trend in patent litigation relating
to the Federal Court, where 95 per cent of the patent cases
