Michael D. Manson is a partner of the Vancouver office of Smart & Biggar. Mr. Manson’s practice covers all areas of intellectual property, primarily in litigation. He has appeared as counsel in numerous patent, trade-mark, industrial design, and copyright proceedings before the Federal Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of Ontario, and the British Columbia Supreme Court, and has been involved in a number of court mandated mediations in intellectual property disputes. Although his practice is primarily related to litigation, Mr. Manson also has extensive involvement with trade-mark filing and prosecution, both domestic and foreign, trade-mark oppositions, licensing, and opinion work. As part of his practice, Mr. Manson is responsible for co-ordinating many of his client’s international patent and trade-mark portfolios and licensing concerns.

As part of Mr. Manson’s litigation experience, he has been involved in a wide cross-section of legal proceedings before the Federal Court and Provincial Courts of Ontario and British Columbia, including successfully obtaining and resisting interlocutory injunctions, summary judgments, seizures before judgment in copyright and trade-mark counterfeiting matters, patented medicines notice of compliance proceedings, patent and trade-mark infringement cases, and a myriad of practice cases before the Federal Court. He has also acted as an expert witness on Letters Rogatory in British Columbia before the United States District Court, District of Oregon, and on Canadian trade-mark law in a Korean arbitration.

Mr. Manson was called to the Ontario Bar in 1984 and the British Columbia Bar in 1995. He obtained a B.Sc. (Biology) degree and a Teaching Diploma from McGill University and his law degree from the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) and is a registered patent and trade-mark agent.

Mr. Manson has an “AV” rating by Marindate-Hubbell, has been listed in Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Patent Experts and Guide to the World’s Leading Trade-mark Law Experts, is recognized in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory in the categories of intellectual property and intellectual property litigation, as well as in the Chambers Global Guide. He has also been listed in Law Business Research Ltd.’s International Who’s Who of Patent Lawyers and International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers, and has been selected by his peers to be listed in The Best Lawyers in Canada as a highly recommended practitioner in the area of intellectual property.

Mr. Manson has written numerous articles and lectures extensively on issues relating to intellectual property law and intellectual property litigation. Mr. Manson’s speaking engagements include a variety of intellectual property conferences and seminars in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan organized by professional associations, institutions, and business groups.

Mr. Manson is an adjunct professor teaching patent law at the University of Victoria Law School and has taught intellectual property law at the University of British Columbia Law School.

Mr. Manson is also a past member of the Patent Examination Board for the Commissioner of Patents and the Patent and Trade-mark Institute of Canada (now IPIC). He has served as Chairman of the Patent and Trade-mark Tutorials Committee of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, has served on the Court Practice Committee of the Intellectual Property Section of the Canadian Bar Association, and has served on several other intellectual property law committees. Mr. Manson serves on the INTA-CPR Panel of Neutrals for Canada for Trade-mark disputes. He currently serves on the INTA Anti-Counterfeiting Committee, North America and is a panellist on CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Panel of The British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre.

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