Supporting Canada’s IP community at IPIC 2026
Smart & Biggar is pleased to announce that several practitioners will be attending and speaking at the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada’s Annual Conference (IPIC2026 Centennial Conference), alongside current IPIC President and Smart & Biggar principal, Jason Hynes. This year's conference is especially meaningful as IPIC celebrates its 100th anniversary, marking a century of the organization’s contributions to advancing and strengthening the intellectual property profession in Canada.
As proud sponsors of both IPIC’s year-long centennial celebrations and of the conference’s Global IP Leadership Dinner, we are proud to contribute to IPIC’s celebrations of 100 years of innovation.
Since its founding, Smart & Biggar's practitioners have played an active role within IPIC, helping to shape discussions on the issues affecting innovators, businesses and IP practitioners across the country. We are thrilled to support IPIC at each step along the way and look forward to another successful 100 years.
Speaking at IPIC 2026
Connect with our practitioners as they contribute to a range of informative sessions throughout the conference:
- Jason Hynes will deliver the Opening Remarks on September 16.
- Jeff Leuschner will moderate the Patent Office Practice Update session on September 18.
- Jean-Sébastien Dupont will participate in the debate “The Robot of Ordinary Skill in the Art”: Be It Resolved that AI Will Destroy the Novelty/Originality Required for Patent/Copyright Protection in Canada on September 18.
In addition to our speakers the following practitioners will be attending:
- Daniel Davies
- Irshaad Hashim
- Sally Hemming
- Katie Jeziorski
- Dominique Lambert
- Matthew Norton
- David Schwartz
- Reagan Seidler
- Joshua Spicer
- Mark Starzomski
- Melanie Szweras
- Matthew Zischka
If you'll be attending, we invite you to connect with our team during the conference.