Distinguished leadership in Canadian IP law
Dan Bereskin is a Principal of Smart & Biggar LLP. He has received numerous awards and recognitions during his career, including being appointed King’s Counsel in 1982 and Member of the Order of Canada in 2020. He has served as legal counsel to the International Trademark Association (INTA), as a member of the INTA Board of Directors and is a recipient of the INTA President’s Award.
He was named “Trademarks Lawyer of the Year” by Who’s Who Legal, was granted a Lifetime Achievement award by World Leaders International IP Awards in 2007, was the recipient of a Lexpert Zenith Award in 2012 as a “change agent,” was elected to the IP Hall of Fame in 2014, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Managing Intellectual Property in 2017 and was named “Lawyer of the Year 2020” by Best Lawyers for Intellectual Property in Canada.
He is the author of The Canadian Law of Unfair Competition; editor/author of Trademark Dilution and Free-Riding; Prosecuting and Defending Domain Name Disputes and of more than 50 papers and articles on various intellectual property law subjects.Qualifications
- News
- Speaking
- Industry Involvement
- Keynote lecture, second annual Justice Roger T. Hughes Memorial Lecture in Intellectual Property Law, November 24, 2025
- "A survey of recent decisions on survey evidence – where are we now?” IPIC webinar, October 9, 2024
- Balancing Freedom of Expression, Copyright and Trademark Rights: Art or Science?, August 31, 2022
- Keeping Clients Happy: Keys to Professional Success, August 18, 2022
- The History and Status of Trademark Dilution Protection, Contrasting the US, EU and Canadian Legislation, April 29, 2021
- Common sense and trademark law – Episode 10, December 12, 2019
- INTA 141st Annual Meeting, May 18-22, 2019
Memberships
- Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC), Fellow
- International Trademark Association (INTA)
- Law Society of Ontario (LSO)
- Toronto Intellectual Property Group (TIPG)
- College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents (CPATA)
- Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO)
- Member of the Order of Canada