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- Patents & Industrial Designs
- Trade-Marks
- Copyrights
- Trade Secrets
- Intellectual Property Management
- Intellectual Property Litigation
PATENTS & INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
Our Patent team is comprised of lawyers and patent agents who use their scientific and legal knowledge to help clients maximize the value of their inventions by properly protecting, defending and managing them, both in Canada and abroad.
We will protect inventions in a wide variety of sectors, such as chemistry, electricity, electronics, life sciences, mechanics, nanotechnology, optics, software and telecommunications.
Our team will participate in the identification of an invention and of its inventors and the drafting and prosecution of the patent application claiming such an invention. It will handle the preparation of assignments of rights by employees and consultants as well as due diligence investigations of patent portfolios. It will participate in the protection of our clients’ rights in their inventions via the adoption and implementation of the appropriate corporate strategy against infringers. It will also be actively involved in the licensing in or out of patented inventions and the implementation of licensing programs as well as of intellectual property management programs.
Our team will also prepare patentability, validity, infringement and freedom-to-operate opinions, and will obtain the protection of other intellectual property assets under the Industrial Design Act, the Integrated Circuits Topography Act and the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act.
TRADE-MARKS
Our Trade-mark team is comprised of lawyers and trade-mark agents who use their legal knowledge to help clients maximize the value of their trade-marks by properly protecting, defending and managing them, both in Canada and abroad. Our team will provide registrability and availability opinion and prepare, file and prosecute trade-mark applications.
Our team is also highly qualified to:
- conduct opposition and cancellation proceedings;
- use other intellectual property laws, such as copyright, to enhance the protection of certain trade-marks;
- consider all regulations having an impact on the labelling and advertising of products and services;
- obtain domain name registrations;
- protect the rights of our clients in their trade-marks by helping them use the appropriate corporate strategy against infringers;
- conduct due diligence investigations of trade-mark portfolios.
Our team helps clients implement intellectual property management programs. It participates in the drafting and negotiating of trade-mark license agreements and helps clients put in place broad licensing programs which can generate new revenue streams while building the strength of a trade-mark or of a trade-mark portfolio;
Our team also works closely with our clients’ marketing departments and marketing firms to ensure branding and marketing efforts are in line with current trade-mark law as well as with regulations having an impact on branding and labelling.
COPYRIGHTS
Our team will also work with clients in determining whether an invention should be kept secret rather than be the subject of a patent application. We will suggest appropriate measures to help maintain the secrecy of trade secrets and other confidential information, including those provided by third parties under non-disclosure agreements. We will protect the rights of our clients contractually, for example by tailoring the non-disclosure agreement necessary for a particular business endeavour, or via litigation, should it become necessary to adopt legal measures against individuals or companies involved in misappropriating the trade secrets of our clients.
TRADE SECRETS
Our team will also work with clients in determining whether an invention should be kept secret rather than be the subject of a patent application. We will suggest appropriate measures to help maintain the secrecy of trade secrets and other confidential information, including those provided by third parties under non-disclosure agreements. We will protect the rights of our clients contractually, for example by tailoring the non-disclosure agreement necessary for a particular business endeavour, or via litigation, should it become necessary to adopt legal measures against individuals or companies involved in misappropriating the trade secrets of our clients.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
We believe that sound intellectual property management practices not only maximize the value of intellectual property assets but also help clients remain competitive in a knowledge economy that is now truly global.
To illustrate how seriously we take this issue, and because we firmly believe that good intellectual property management begins with a better understanding of what constitutes intellectual property, BCF and a team of leading scientists have developed a program of cutting-edge courses for scientists and management that will allow clients to extract the value of the intellectual property they generate, monetize their intellectual property, map the intellectual property landscape in which they operate and adopt the measures necessary to deal with potential land mines such as third-party intellectual property rights.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LITIGATION
Now, more than ever, businesses understand the value of their intellectual property and are willing to resort to litigation to retain or gain a competitive edge. That is why our team of intellectual property litigators and other patent and trade-mark professionals will work hand in hand with clients to adopt the right litigation strategy and obtain the appropriate remedies for the infringement of our clients’ intellectual property rights. BCF has also developed strategies that can be put in place today to help minimize the likelihood of third parties seeking or obtaining certain remedies against our clients during intellectual property litigation.
