Smart & Biggar’s Steven Garland and François Guay named as ‘Top 50 Trial Lawyers’ in Canada by Benchmark Litigation
Smart & Biggar is proud to announce that Principals of the firm, Steven Garland and François Guay, have been honoured by Benchmark Litigation as among the 2023 ‘Top 50 Trial Lawyers’ in Canada.
In the 2023 Benchmark Canada Guide, Smart & Biggar was recognized as a leader for Intellectual Property (IP) Litigation in Canada and editors at Benchmark praised Smart & Biggar as “Canada’s deepest and most renowned intellectual property law firm” with a dominant position in Canada’s IP community as “true trial lawyers” that are “revered for a range of experience and landmark wins” across all areas of IP litigation including trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
Steven Garland has over 30 years of trial and appellate experience in all areas of IP and numerous landmark decisions under his belt, Steven has a proven track record of IP success for the world’s most successful brands such as Amazon.com, Dow Chemical, Labatt, Shell, Bayer, McDonald’s, Parmalat and Cenovus. He has acted in matters that have involved a wide variety of subjects, including chemical, electrical, biochemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnological, telephony, mechanical and computer/internet subject matter.
Benchmark celebrated Steven for his role as the lead counsel in our litigation team’s successful representation in one of the “most substantial and hard-fought pieces of non-pharmaceutical-related patent litigation in Canada” in the milestone victory for Dow Chemicals in November 2022. In an 8-1 majority ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the record-setting $645M patent infringement award in Dow v Nova. As reported previously, this was and remains the largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history.
François Guay is among the most experienced intellectual property litigators in Canada with a precedent-setting record backed by 35 years of focused experience in IP litigation. He is a highly sought-after advisor to the largest, most innovative companies in the world. As one of the most successful IP litigators in the country at the appellate level, his clients trust their most complex and contentious IP issues to François’s proven track record of building effective litigation strategies and preparing highly persuasive arguments to be presented in court. Among some of François recent trial victories was Angelcare Canada Inc et al v Munchkin Inc et al (2022 FC 507), providing relief for the patent owners in April 2022, and successfully affirming the Federal Court’s decision in Bell Media Inc et al v Goldtv.biz et al in relation to copyright protection against online piracy in March 2022.
The Top 50 Trial Lawyers are an elite group of individuals who have been nominated specifically for their acumen with bench trials and on the strength of peer and client reviews. Each practitioner chosen has a list of proven achievements and has played a lead role in spearheading some of the most high-stakes and high-profile cases to make their way to the trial level in Canada.
Congratulations to Steven and François on this outstanding recognition.
Read more about Benchmark Litigation’s ‘Top 50 Trial Lawyers’ in Canada guide online.
About Smart & Biggar
Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada’s leading intellectual property firm, with offices in Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. We are leaders in intellectual property and have been serving clients for over a century. Smart & Biggar operates as part of the IPH Limited group, under its own brand and independent from other IPH member firms.