Gowling WLG

Firm overview:

International firm Gowling WLG has offices across Canada, Europe, the Middle East and China, and maintains an exclusive association with JurisAsia on clients in Southeast Asia.

The firm considers the fact that it does not have a presence in the US a strength, since it can rely on a strong reputation and long-standing connections to present a seamless global offering.

With its interdisciplinary bundle of services for the protection of intangible assets, clients at international brands appreciate the firm’s “deep subject matter expertise” on trade secrets matters.

In addition, Gowling is known as a thought leader on trade secrets, speaking at and sponsoring various conferences and webinars, as well as producing webinars, global surveys, and online tips and guidelines.

The firm’s trade secrets services range from employment law—such as employee agreements, restrictive covenants, prevention and training—to trade secret litigation, enforcement and recovery. Indeed, top-tier employment lawyers across offices are an important part of the firm’s trade secret offering.

Data privacy and cyber security, including artificial intelligence, are also key areas of expertise for Gowling, which feed into its trade secrets practice.

The firm has recently been very active on significant trade secret litigation cases, advising on trade secret strategy, policies and management and providing support in significant transactions involving trade secrets.

Through a collaboration with trade secret management software company Tangibly, Gowling offers clients an alternative way to identify and manage their valuable trade secrets.

Team overview:

Gowling’s global trade secrets department is led by Anita Nador and James Buchan (both in Toronto). The team comprises roughly 45 partners and lawyers from across several practice groups in an international cross-disciplinary group.

The recent departure of Matt Hervey, who was based in the London office, will be a loss to the firm. Hervey was head of Artificial Intelligence and co-head of Global Trade Secrets. He was a trusted adviser, especially for clients with complex patent disputes litigation, and for trade secret protection and enforcement, particularly with respect to AI innovation.

An international brand client identifies positive experiences with the firm, naming in particular partner and co-lead, Global Trade Secrets group, Anita Nador. “I have worked with a couple of partners on the Marketing/IP team and have had very positive experiences [having received] business-oriented and practical advice.”

Other notable partners include Huw Evans, a partner focused on Patent Litigation, Trade Secrets and IP strategy advice based in London. Evans has been active in trade secrets for many of his 30 years of practice. He has acted for a number of banks and hedge funds where the trade secrets in the form of trading strategies may be highly portable.  Other areas are general engineering and high-tech, including racing teams. More recently, Evans has become more active in life sciences.

Doak Horne has extensive expertise as a first-chair trial and appellate lawyer specialising in trade-secret cases and other complex litigation before both the Federal and Provincial trial and appellate courts. A partner in the Calgary office, Horne is qualified to practise in Canada and the US and has more than 35 years’ experience. He has litigated trade-secret cases involving software, computer technology, above-surface oil recovery technologies and methods, GPS & seismic technologies, and client lists in the medical devices field.

Key matters:

• Gowling represents Sussex Research Laboratories as the plaintiff in litigation regarding the theft of trade secrets, other confidential and proprietary information and chemical compounds. The Gowling team is led by Ottawa partners Michael Crichton, a former Canadian leader of the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation & Strategy Group, and Frédéric Lussier.
• Gowling was retained by Canadian biotech Medicago to prepare a company trade secret policy. The policy review was led by Ottawa partners Michael Crichton and head of IP Litigation and Strategy, Will Boyer.
• A Gowling team led by partners Michael Crichton and Bettina Burgess was instructed in trade secrets litigation by software company, Groupby, a next-generation developer of e-commerce search experience tools.

Clients:

Cache Computer Consulting Company, Ecopia Tech Corporation, Exterran Corporation, GroupBy, H. L. Staebler Company, ITM Isotopes Technology Munich, Medicago, Nova Chemicals, Stage Completions, Sussex Research Laboratories.