Intellectual Property

Our lawyers understand the value of our clients’ intellectual property and have experience with trademarks, patents, copyright, industrial designs, trade secrets and breaches of confidence. We provide practical strategies and legal support to a community of relentlessly innovative businesses and brands that covers registration, licensing and litigation. 

Our team provides legal support to brand owners and licensees in an always-evolving world of intellectual property protection across a broad spectrum of industries. 

We bring many years of copyright, trademark and patent experience to our clients’ intellectual property needs, aided with our prior engineering, technology, litigation and corporate experience. We advise our clients on all aspects of intellectual property law, including identifying and developing an effective and economically efficient strategy, building and maintaining a world-wide patent and trademark portfolio that meets business objectives, clearing new ideas and new designs to increase the chance of registration and reduce the risks of infringing intellectual property rights of others. We strive to stay abreast of our clients’ business objectives and work closely with our clients to understand their business and legal goals.

We work with clients from all sectors and industries with diverse services, goods and inventions. We represent companies of all sizes from Canada, the United States, Asia (including China) and Europe in connection with their Canadian trademark, patent and other intellectual property needs. Whether you are starting a new venture or expanding into a new marketplace, Dale & Lessmann LLP can bring a unique global perspective to the legal and business issues you face.

We are committed to maintaining a high standard of client services throughout the application and registration process for patents, industrial designs, trademarks, and copyrights. Our lawyers provide practical advice on patents, industrial designs, trademark and copyrights, have experience with license agreements and conducting due diligence investigations. When needed, we provide services to enforce registered and unregistered rights and to defend claims for infringement and passing off. We have also developed a network of highly qualified foreign associates who are experts in local trademark, patent and copyright laws, to assist our clients in foreign countries no matter where their businesses or markets take them.

Our trademark and copyright services include:

  • Trademark registration to help our clients protect their businesses.
  • Protecting trademarks and copyright from infringement claims.
  • Trademark opposition proceedings, both to oppose marks that potentially limit our client’s ability to use their own marks and defend oppositions for our clients.
  • Advising clients on copyright protection in the software industries, e-commerce and website development.
  • Providing transactional advice and due diligence in the evaluation and management of trademarks and unregistered brands in acquisitions, mergers, financings and bankruptcies.
  • Negotiating and drafting licenses, franchise agreements, web development agreements and e-commerce agreements.
  • Litigating trademark and copyright disputes for both claimants and defendants.
  • Commencing and defending trademark cancellation (section 45) and expungement (section 57) disputes.
  • Brand licensing.

Our patent, industrial design and trade secret services include:

  • advising on patenting strategy and devising global patent protection strategies, including consideration of industrial design registrations and trade secret protection.
  • evaluating inventions and assessing patentability of new ideas, modifications and improvements.
  • advising clients on protecting the unique visual features of products, including both product designs and forms of product packaging, through industrial design registrations.
  • drafting and filing patent applications to protect our clients’ innovations and technologies.
  • prosecuting patent applications to obtain patents for domestic and international clients.
  • maintaining and developing patent portfolios to support clients’ business objectives.
  • negotiating patent licensing agreements, helping structure licensing deals and evaluating licensing offers.
  • advising and assisting clients in their acquisition and transfer of patent rights and interests in inventions from inventors and companies.
  • enforcing clients’ patent and industrial design rights and counseling clients on effective and economically efficient enforcement strategies.
  • evaluating third parties’ infringement allegations and counseling clients on defending against infringement proceedings.
  • evaluating and defending or pursing claims for breach of confidence.
  • counseling clients on industrial designs, trade secrets.
  • conducting patent searches of third party’s patents, advising on validity and enforceability of third party’s patents, counseling clients on avoiding infringement of others’ patents.
  • conducting due diligence investigation and evaluation of patent portfolios involved in business and corporate transactions.
  • counseling clients on patent matters, including any potential infringement risks, in proposed M&A transactions and investment deals.