Nora Labbancz presented with Education Foundation Award at IPIC 2020 Virtual conference

Smart & Biggar is pleased to share that Ottawa associate Nora Labbancz has received the IPIC Education Foundation Award in recognition of earning the highest overall mark in the 2019 Canadian Trademark Agent Qualifying Examination. The award was presented to Nora on October 1, 2020 at the IPIC 2020 Virtual conference.

Kohji Suzuki, national chair of Smart & Biggar's Trademarks Practice group said, “Smart & Biggar has always been dedicated to providing the best counsel and service in intellectual property. With bright, young professionals like Nora on our team we continue to uphold that commitment to excellence for our clients.  Considering close to one hundred individuals wrote the Trademark agents exam across Canada, with a pass rate of only 27%, we are very proud of Nora and her success on the exam.”

Nora wrote the exam with four other Smart & Biggar associates — Tierney GB Deluzio in Toronto, Elodie Dion and Olivier Jean-Lévesque in Montreal, and Matthew Burt in Ottawa — all of whom passed the exam and are now qualified as registered Canadian trademark agents as well as IP lawyers.

The Trademark Agent Examination is a certification exam designed to assess the candidate’s knowledge of the Trademarks Act, the Trademarks Regulations, case law and Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) practice required in order to practice independently as a trademark agent. The IPIC Educational Foundation awards prizes for the students achieving the highest marks in the Patent Agent and Trademark Agent exams each year.

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.