Intellectual Property Protection, Opinions and Litigation
Over its life, a company must maintain its intellectual property intact, deal with infringers and engage in licensing-out and other forms of exploitation.
Fasken Martineau's expertise in intellectual property is widely acknowledged and we have acted in this area for some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies as well as biotech and research entities.
We have expertise in the acquisition, enforcement and exploitation of intellectual property rights covering biotechnology and the life sciences in Canada and the UK.
Our combined technical training and experience offers a breadth of expertise in: genetic and protein engineering; biochemistry; pharmaceuticals; immunology; animal and plant tissue culture and medical devices.
The life science group can help in the management of intellectual property rights, and provide a range of services including:
Protection
- drafting, filing and prosecuting patent applications in Canada and internationally
- providing patentability searches/opinions
- reviewing and maintaining patent portfolios
- confidential information and know-how protection
- developing invention protection strategies
- supplementary protection, marketing authorisation certificates, data exclusivity and patent strategy
Exploitation
- optimising the product life-cycle
- providing freedom to operate searches/opinions
- clinical trial, experimental use and regulatory issues during patent life and post-expiry
- assisting in commercial transactions involving the sale or transfer of IP rights
- IP due diligence
- IP licensing, including early- and late- stage licensing deals and other alliances and collaborations (see Licensing and Collaboration, for details)
Infringement
- providing validity and infringement searches/opinions
- enforcing and litigating IP rights
- conduct of national patent infringement proceedings for claimants and defendants
- coordinating international patent litigation throughout Europe, US, Canada and Japan
Our life sciences group has expertise in the management of IP rights in Europe and EU parallel trade issues, including:
- rights of trade mark owners faced with repackaged and relabelled parallel imports
- exhaustion of rights and the enlarged Community
- imports from outside the Community
- possibility of imposing quotas on wholesalers
Complete IP Package We also have trade mark lawyers and registered trade mark agents who provide validity/infringement opinions, availability/clearance reports, and who file and prosecute trade-mark applications in Canada and the UK and co-ordinate trade-mark filings internationally through an established network of associate law firms. Our trade mark professionals are also experienced in litigation and commercial transactions.
We can also provide practical business and legal advice to guide strategic and tactical assessments of how best to expand and commercialize IP portfolios, as well as provide advice on IP risk assessment and mitigation.
Many of the team are active committee members of various legal and industry associations, and frequently present and publish on topics of interest in the field of intellectual property law.
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