Smart & Biggar shines at the 2023 MIP North America Awards
Smart & Biggar was honoured at the 18th annual Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) North America Awards 2023, receiving a top firm award and an “Impact Case of the Year” accolade.
Reflecting our leading position in the Canadian market, Smart & Biggar was awarded the “Patent Prosecution Firm of the Year” award, for the fourth time, recognizing our top-level handling of patent portfolio management, filing and overall prosecution strategy for innovation-focused clients. The firm impressed MIPs researchers with its deep bench of experienced patent practitioners servicing clients in the energy, technology, consumer goods, life sciences and aerospace industries, among other industries.
Notably, Smart & Biggar also received an “Impact Case of the Year” award, for our successful representation of the respondents in the Nova Chemicals Corp v Dow Chemical Co case before the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). In an 8-1 majority ruling, the SCC affirmed the record-setting $645M patent infringement award wherein Nova was ordered to pay Dow a quantum of its profits for infringement of its patent on novel polyethylene blends. This was and remains the largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history. Dow was represented by the firm’s award-winning litigation team including Steve Garland, Jeremy Want, Daniel Davies, Matthew Burt and Nicole Boyle.
The awards were accepted by Matthew Zischka, Managing Director of the firm, together with Jeremy Want, Principal and member of the litigation team representing Dow, at a gala ceremony at Essex House, New York City on April 27, 2023.
“These awards highlight the strength of Smart & Biggar’s broad-based IP offering, and market-leading IP litigation capabilities. Taking home an Impact Case of the Year award in view of the record-setting $650M award achieved for our client Dow, while being recognized once again as the go-to firm for Patent Prosecution in Canada is a high honour. Congratulations to everyone at our firm involved for your contributions and the outstanding results achieved for our clients.”
Matthew Zischka, Managing Director
Smart & Biggar has long been recognized as a leading IP firm in Canada by MIP and has proudly received awards in previous years that include ‘Canadian Firm of the Year’ awards for Patent Prosecution, Trademark Contentious, Patent Contentious, Trademark Prosecution, Copyrights, and ‘IP Boutique Firm of the Year’ in Canada.
The full list of this year’s MIP North America Award winners is available to view 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.