Effective January 1st 2022, all of the members of SMITHS IP are now practising as part of the firm Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP. Feel free to contact us at our new home and emails at Oyen Wiggs.

Our Blog

Upcoming Conferences

Dana Turner-Ryan of our office will be attending the Sports Lawyers Association 39th Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia between May 16 and 18, 2013 … Lawrence Chan will be attending...

Read More

Amazon Shamazon!

The Commissioner of Patents has finally but combatively reacted to the Federal Court of Appeal decision in Canada (Attorney General) v Amazon.com Inc., 2011 FCA 328 by issuing a practice notice. Apparently the battle continues.

Read More

Beating the Ugly Out of Trolls

Patent trolls have evolved from what seemed at one time almost folklore to now being the subject of statistical and scholarly analysis [fn1] [fn2]. 

Read More

Don’t Sound Alone

Trademarks often include both textual elements (i.e. words) and design elements (e.g. shapes, graphic elements, etc.). Canadian courts and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office have found that such trademarks are clearly descriptive (and unregistrable under the Trade-marks Act) if they contain a dominant textual element that is clearly descriptive when sounded.

Read More