Experience

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  Interac Corp.

  • Greater Toronto Area, Canada

  • Senior Legal Counsel, Technology

    • Jun 2022 - Present
    • Greater Toronto Area, Canada

    Product Development, Technology Contracting, Intellectual Property, and Cybersecurity:• Driving IP strategy and serving as subject matter expert in the commercialization of IP and IP litigation strategies.• Prosecuting patent applications, including supervision of outside counsel for those activities.• Providing legal advice on the procurement, development, maintenance, and enforcement of IP matters. • Providing IP legal support for client engagements related to intellectual property rights and licensing of technology, including advising, negotiating, and drafting complex commercial provisions related to technology agreements. • Supporting internal business units on product development and new offerings that require legal support for commercialization and protecting ownership rights in IP, including providing advice and support on technology matters pertinent to AI, Data Use and Handling, and Open-Source Software. • Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including product teams, marketing, and business development, to ensure legal compliance and risk management.• Developing training, playbooks, and templates to assist Interac product developers professionals with technology-related matters• Providing legal support to the incident response process, including assisting investigation team, breach reporting, and crafting of external communications • Supporting efforts to maintain and enhance Interac's security posture, including cyber insurance coverage• Working with Interac’s security teams and human resources to assess and mitigate insider threats • Participating in and advise on cybersecurity preparedness incident exercises, incident response playbooks, and education and training in line with industry best practices • Overseeing outside counsel engagement on cybersecurity matters, collaboration with forensic investigators, ransomware strategies, and engagement with incident response professionals

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  BlackBerry

  • Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

  • Director

    • Aug 2008 - Jun 2022
    • Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

    Innovation (Intellectual Property and Product Development):Supported Program and Product Managers, and development groups throughout product development lifecycle, including advising to ensure compliance with development agreements. Negotiated, reviewed, and advised on development-related agreements, such as co-development, proof of concept, non-disclosure, technology licensing, software evaluation, university partnership, and open-source software license agreements.Intellectual Property Management and Group Operations:Managed day-to-day operational control of patent portfolio, including restructuring and operationalizing internal governance processes, patent lifecycle document review, and invoice reviews resulting in increased SOX compliance transparency.Prepared and provided ongoing innovation training to Company’s developer community, including on-boarding innovation training for employees of acquired companies, highlighting the importance of intellectual property protection to enterprise growth.Reviewed inventor privacy matters and advised management on privacy compliance with local and international privacy law obligations, including reviewing GDPR requirements relating to inventors' PII.Transactional, Licensing, Litigation, and General Legal:Conducted competitive intelligence analysis of third-party products and patents (including qualitative valuation analysis) and further developed patent portfolio in relation to competitive offerings.Reviewed, drafted, and negotiated patent acquisition and divestiture agreements, patent distribution and technology licenses (inbound and outbound), evaluation and interoperability agreements.Reviewed and negotiated key aspects of merger and acquisition agreements (asset and share purchase), financing agreements, and IP security agreements, including developing a due diligence framework for assessing the technologies and IP holdings of potential acquisition targets.

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  Vasogen Inc

  • Counsel (sole in-house Counsel)

    • 2007 - 2008

    Supported Senior Management group.Prepared, reviewed and advised on Consulting agreements, IT Supplier and Outsourcing agreements, Debt Financing agreements, Securities Regulatory filings, Employee Privacy matters; and, Marketing and Sales agreements. Managed general litigation matters, and resolved matters when consistent with corporate objectives.Managed and Developed Company’s Patent and Trade-Mark Portfolios - Canadian and US Patent Agent.Reviewed potential in-licensing opportunities; assessed litigation risk with respect to current research and development plans; directed invention mining sessions, including providing input to the design of basic science and pre-clinical research initiatives to ensure their sufficiency to support IP development.Supported Clinical and Regulatory groups.Prepared, negotiated and advised on Contract Research Organization Start-Up and Master Service agreements; Clinical Trial Investigator agreements; Material Transfer Agreements; and Contract Manufacturing agreements.

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  Gowling Lafleur Henderson

  • Associate

    • 2000 - 2007

    Patent Prosecution and Trade-Mark Prosecution - Canadian and US Patent Agent. Prepared and prosecuted patent, trade-mark and design applications; advised on intellectual property matters in corporate transactions; provided patent and industrial design legal opinions (including infringement, validity, patentability and design registrability opinions); and, Conducted client and competitor patent portfolio analysis.Corporate/Commercial:Drafted, reviewed and negotiated assignments, licenses, general security agreements and IP security agreements; and, conducted due diligence for transactions having significant intellectual property components.Litigation:Directed patent litigation matters, including preparing settlement agreements, releases, waivers and indemnity agreements. Provided litigation support on patent and trade mark infringement matters, including preparing infringement opinions, memoranda or fact and law, and expert affidavits.