Areas of Practice

Document your intellectual property ownership – if you employ someone to create original pieces of work for your business, such as literature, graphic designs or technology, do you have the ability to use these works however you want? The answer is no. Unless your employment agreement specifically assigns any copyright created by your employee to your business, you could be prevented from reproducing or altering those works. We can assist you with ensuring that you have accurate intellectual property assignments in place, so that you are noted as the rightful owner of any copyright, trademarks, or other intellectual property created for you.

Register your intellectual property – intellectual property comes in many forms, including copyright and trademarks. Copyright entitles the owner to produce or reproduce an original work, such as art, literature and music. A trademark distinguishes your goods and services from your competitors and allows the consumer to make a mental connection between your brand and your goods and services. Trademarks can be represented as words, designs, sounds, colours or a combination thereof. Only by registering your trademark can you obtain the exclusive rights throughout Canada to its use. We can help you navigate the copyright registration process and actively assist with the trademark process by working with you to prepare your trademark application, responding to any examiner’s requests or objections and, if necessary, working through any opposition proceedings.

Protect your intellectual property – what do you do if someone else is using your intellectual property? How do you stop others from taking advantage of all of the financial, emotional and physical effort that you have made to create a successful business? We can discuss the various options that you have for enforcing your intellectual property rights and preventing infringement.