Cases

Aitken Klee represents clients in high stakes patent, trademark and copyright litigation at all levels of the court, including a breakthrough patent case at the Supreme Court of Canada. With more than a dozen seasoned lawyers, Aitken Klee has a proven track record of success across a wide range of industries. Notable matters of the firm include:

  • Jonathan Stainsby and Marcus Klee obtained a Mareva injunction and an Anton Piller injunction in a multi-jurisdictional $71,000,000 fraud action and subsequently enforced the terms of a settlement (2022 ONSC 3721, 2023 ONCA 308).
  • Marcus Klee and Aleem Abdulla successfully defended Teva Canada, Pharmascience and Laboratoire Riva in using the nascent summary trial procedure to invalidate the claims of a tadalafil patent that had withstood invalidity attacks by other generics (2022 FC 1398, affirmed 2024 FCA 72).
  • Marcus Klee and Jessica Sudbury represented Pharmascience in a summary trial and a full trial relating to the paliperidone palmitate, a drug used for the treatment of schizophrenia (2022 FC 62, 2022 FC 1218).
  • Devin Doyle successfully represented Teva Canada at the Federal Court of Appeal in a case which clarified the rules governing the powers available to trial judges in awarding costs (2022 FCA 207).
  • Bryan Norrie and Lesley Caswell successfully obtained a stay of CIPO re-examination proceedings pending the final outcome of a patent action in the Federal Court (2021 FC 367).
  • Bryan Norrie and Jon Giraldi successfully defended Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in an infringement action regarding abiraterone (2021 FC 7, 2022 FCA 184) and enabled Dr. Reddy’s to secure significant s.8 damages.
  • Bryan Norrie, Lesley Caswell, and Devin Doyle were successful at trial and on appeal in an action involving Copaxone®, a drug for treating multiple sclerosis (2020 FC 1158, 2022 FCA 2).
  • Jonathan Stainsby, Marcus Klee, and Aleem Abdulla successfully defended Teva Canada, Pharmascience, and Laboratoire Riva in a multi-defendant patent infringement action where all asserted claims to a low dose formulation of tadalafil, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s blockbuster CIALIS product, were held to lack novelty and be obvious (2020 FC 816, 2023 FCA 125).
  • Aitken Klee represented Teva Canada in an action under amended PMNOC Regulations involving the drug paliperidone palmitate (2020 FC 593).
  • Lesley Caswell and Bryan Norrie represented Natco Canada in a judicial review application challenging the Minister of Health’s policy of listing a product with a combination of medicinal ingredients on the Register of Innovative Drugs on the basis of a product containing a different combination of medicinal ingredients (2020 FC 788).
  • Jonathan Stainsby, Marcus Klee and Aleem Abdulla successfully defended Taro Pharmaceuticals and Pharmascience in the first “common issues” validity trial under the new PMNOC Regulations where all asserted claims were held obvious, knocking nearly 5 years off the patent protection for Biogen’s FAMPYRA (fampridine) product (2020 FC 61; 2022 FCA 143).
  • Marcus Klee and Devin Doyle successfully represented Pharmascience in a summary trial before the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, which resulted in the dismissal of Pfizer’s claims of patent infringement in a damages case involving the drug pregabalin (2019 FC 1271 and 2020 FCA 55).
  • Marcus Klee, Bryan Norrie and Jonathan Girladi successfully represented Teva Canada in its claim for damages relating to the cancer-treating drug, bortezomib, (2018 FC 754, 2019 FCA 273), where the Court invalidated two patents on grounds of obviousness, held that a third patent was not infringed, and awarded s.8 damages to Teva.
  • Aitken Klee represented the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association in Eli Lilly’s arbitration under NAFTA involving a claim for $500 million consequent to the invalidation of Eli Lilly’s patents related to STRATTERA and ZYPREXA for lack of utility under the Patent Act.
  • Aitken Klee successfully represented Two-Way Media in a patent infringement and validity suit involving internet streaming technology against Bell Canada and Telus.
  • Marcus Klee and Aleem Abdulla successfully represented W.L. Gore & Associates in a patent infringement and validity case involving artificial arteries. The corresponding litigation in the United States was described by the Court as the most complicated case the Court has presided over.
  • Aitken Klee represented the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association as an intervenor on several patent appeals before the Supreme Court of Canada (2017 SCC 36, 2015 SCC 20).
  • Aitken Klee successfully represented Teva Canada in securing a damage award in excess of $70 million for Teva’s olanzapine product (2017 FCA 88).
  • Aitken Klee successfully represented Teva Canada at the Federal Court of Appeal in a proceeding under the PMNOC Regulations involving the drug atazanavir (2017 FCA 76) in the first judicial decision to substantively address the meaning of “inventive concept”.
  • Aitken Klee successfully represented Teva Canada in securing substantial damages against Pfizer for Teva’s pregabalin product (2017 FC 332).
  • Aitken Klee defended Suncor Energy in a patent infringement action in the Federal Court of Canada involving Suncor’s oil sands tailings ponds remediation technology.
  • Marcus Klee, Jon Giraldi, and Devin Doyle successfully represented Teva Canada in securing a damages award of over $105 million for Teva’s venlafaxine product (2017 FC 526 on remand from 2016 FCA 161 varying 2014 FC 248 and reasons re: pre-judgment interest 2014 FC 634).
  • Aitken Klee represented Unilever Canada in patent infringement action related to anti-dandruff and conditioning shampoos brought by the Procter & Gamble.
  • Aitken Klee successfully represented Teva Canada at the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal in challenging the Minister of Health’s policy to list patents claiming a single medicinal ingredient against combination products (2014 FC 328, 2014 FC 893, 2015 FCA 93). As a result of the Court of Appeal’s decision, the Government amended the PMNOC Regulations.
  • Aitken Klee successfully represented Teva Canada in two proceedings (2014 FC 184, 2014 FC 247) under the PMNOC Regulations involving the Janssen’s bortezomib product, VELCADE where the Court held that both patents were obvious.
  • David Aitken & Marcus Klee successfully represented Teva Canada in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada which set aside Pfizer’s patent for Viagra (2012 SCC 60).
  • Marcus Klee represented the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, before the Supreme Court of Canada in an appeal involving fair dealing and the copying of course material (2012 SCC 37).
  • Jon Stainsby and Bill Mayo successfully represented Warner Brothers Entertainment in resisting an interlocutory injunction in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking to prevent the release of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” brought by a Winnipeg-based folk band for alleged passing off (2005 CanLII 41383).
  • Bill Mayo successfully represented Novopharm in opposing AstraZeneca Canada’s appeal of the Federal Court’s decision to refuse a trademark application for a felodipine yellow tablet design on the basis of non-distinctiveness (2003 FCA 57).