Smart & Biggar hailed at the 8th annual LMG Life Sciences Awards

Smart & Biggar is proud to claim three major practitioner awards, as well as recognition for our involvement in one of the Patent Impact Cases of the Year at the 8th annual LMG Life Sciences Awards for North America. The annual awards honour firms, individuals and companies behind the most innovative and challenging Life Sciences work of the past year. The awards took place virtually on September 23, 2020.

These awards recognize and affirm Smart & Biggar’s position as an industry-leading law firm for life sciences innovators, with one of the most experienced and talented teams in Canada. LMG Life Sciences editor acclaims Smart & Biggar as “a perennial player for life sciences IP in Canada, whether it be high-stakes patent litigation or strategic patent prosecution and advice. This year was no different with the firm turning in a stellar showing of work for major clients in the industry.”

Smart & Biggar provides life sciences innovators with unmatched expertise across the patent lifecycle from initial patent prosecution, and regulatory approvals, to IP transactions and licensing, enforcement and litigation to maximize protection leading up to loss of exclusivity.

An award highlight for the firm was the presentation of “Patent Impact Case of the Year – Canada” to our litigation team for the novel Federal Court case AstraZeneca Canada v Sandoz Canada, 2020 FC 635.  For more information on this case, see our Rx IP Update article here.

Congratulations to the litigation team representing AstraZeneca in this matter, partners Sheldon Hamilton and Nancy Pei, together with senior associate Abigail Smith and associate Eleanor Wilson, and to our client AstraZeneca who were named “Canadian In-house Team of the Year”.

We also congratulate our partners who were presented with individual awards by LMG, including:

Canadian Patent Litigator of the Year – Sheldon Hamilton, partner

For twenty-five years, Sheldon has acted as counsel for many of the world’s most innovative companies, successfully protecting their commercially valuable IP assets. Sheldon is the Practice Group Leader for litigation at Smart & Biggar. He is acknowledged by LMG as one of Canada’s leading patent litigation lawyers and “impressed in the patent litigation area with novel case work at the Federal Court”. His recent high-profile representations include a case that clarified PMNOC procedure. Annually, Sheldon is included in Who’s Who Legal – Patents, IAM Patent Litigation 250 — The World's Leading Patent Litigators, IAM Life Sciences 250 – The World’s Leading Life Sciences Patent Litigators, Benchmark Canada, and The Best Lawyers in Canada.

Canadian Patent Strategy Practitioner of the Year – Daphne Lainson, partner and Firm Chair

Daphne is recognized by LMG for her continued work in sophisticated life sciences patent prosecution and counseling. With close to two decades of experience in law and patent agency, Daphne is counsel to many of the world’s top innovators. She is regarded by clients in the life sciences sector as an advisor with deep subject matter knowledge and well-grounded advice. LMG lauds Daphne for her “strong client service and leadership firmwide”. She enthusiastically champions and effectively safeguards her clients’ intellectual property rights relating to new drugs, biologics, medical devices, consumer products, agrochemicals, specialty chemicals Daphne for her “strong client service and leadership firmwide”. She enthusiastically champions and effectively safeguards her clients’ intellectual property rights relating to, industrial chemical processes, oil, gas and petrochemicals. Daphne continues to be recognized in a number of other directories, including IAM Strategy 300, WIPR Influential Women in IP, as an IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property, a World IP Review Leader in IP and a Lexpert ranked lawyer for IP and Biotechnology, among others.

Additionally, Gunars Gaikis, of counsel, was one of only 5 inductees into the Life Sciences Hall of Fame

Known for his market-leading status in the industry, unrelenting client commitment and fierce courtroom advocacy, Gunars is a pre-eminent and pioneering leader in intellectual property in life sciences. Gunars’ induction into the Hall of Fame is “a fitting celebration of his career as one of the most respected litigators in the market”. He has been consistently recognized by his peers and clients for his expertise and contributions over the past 25 years in the highly specialized field of pharmaceutical patent, trademark and related litigation. Among his many accolades, Gunars has been listed as one of the top thirty patent attorneys globally and named as one of the world’s leading life sciences patent litigators, and clients praise Gunars as an “IP star” and “seasoned gladiator”.

Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada’s leading firm for intellectual property law, with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. We are leaders in intellectual property and technology law and have been serving clients for over a century.