Alistair G. Simpson

First Year of Call
1990

Areas of Practice

Description
Alistair Simpson has been advising clients in respect of intellectual property matters for more than twenty five years. His practice is diverse, encompassing all areas of intellectual property law including procurement, transactions and exploitation including licensing, and enforcement and defence work including litigation, with a particular emphasis on patents. Clients and colleagues have noted Alistair “is a licensing guru who uses transactions not only to increase revenue, but also to resolve intractable disputes”.

He has assisted small to mid-size enterprises, as well as large multinational corporations, in procuring patent and other intellectual property protection; exploiting their intellectual property and assisting in the defence of their activities, providing among other services, due diligence investigations and the negotiation and drafting of patent and technology licenses and other similar types of agreements; and developing robust intellectual property strategies. He has also worked with his clients to develop internal procedures to ensure that intellectual property rights are safe-guarded and properly protected. He also has significant experience with trademark and design protection.

His knowledge of what is important to corporate clients is in part informed by his experiences on secondment to the in-house intellectual property group of a major Canadian high technology firm for over a year, where he assisted with patent licensing, exploitation, defence and strategy.

Alistair has considerable expertise working with clients in industries relating to both high technology and mechanical subject matter, such as telecommunication systems, industrial machinery and systems including packaging equipment, agricultural equipment, energy related technologies and medical devices. His background in civil engineering is considered a valued asset by such clients.

Alistair is qualified as a lawyer and patent agent both in Canada and the United States, and he provides advice to clients with respect to both Canadian and United States patent law, which is a particularly strong asset to companies operating in both jurisdictions. Additionally, while not currently advising clients in respect of English law, he is also qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Clients and colleagues have noted that Alistair is “a practitioner to seek out”, and he “keeps his ear to the ground in terms of new business opportunities” (IAM Patents 1000, 2018).

In his spare time, Alistair and his border collies train for, and compete in, sheepdog trials in both Canada and the United States.