OUR PEOPLE

Patrick Smith is a partner in Gowlings' Ottawa office, practising in the area of intellectual property with particular emphasis on patents and trade-marks. He is also a Professional Engineer. He represents clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical, agriculture, construction industries as well as the oil & gas industry. He has extensive experience with PM(NOC) proceedings and other pharmaceutical litigation.

Patrick has appeared as counsel in more than 100 reported decisions relating to patents, trade-marks and copyright in the Ontario Court, Federal Court and Supreme Court of Canada and regularly is lead counsel in key litigation cases such as Novopharm Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Company (2010 FC 915) regarding a patent validity action for the medicine Strattera® for ADHD. He has successfully represented clients such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, Janssen, Schering-Plough, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dow AgroSciences, Allergan, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Bayer, Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Amgen in all levels of court on litigation matters.

Patrick was the former chairman of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada’s patent legislation committee and testified before a Parliamentary Committee regarding amendments to the Patent Act. He is also a registered patent agent.

With over 15 years experience, Patrick regularly appears as a speaker on key litigation issues impacting companies operating in Canada. He frequently publishes articles in IP-related reports such as the Canadian Intellectual Property Reports and Gowlings’ annual Life Sciences & Law Current Issues publication. He is a former adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa having taught patent law. He now teaches and mentors students, associates and junior partners at the Firm.