Torys LLP
Toronto416.865.0040 New York212.880.6000 Calgary403.776.3700

Practice Areas and Industry Groups

Technology Litigation 

Torys has a leading technology litigation practice, with significant expertise in handling disputes in all sectors of the IT industry. We act for a wide variety of clients, including hardware and software developers and consumers, licensees and licensors, rights holders, Internet providers, media and entertainment companies, IT professionals and others.

A major part of our litigation practice involves disputes involving technology, including those related to licenses, development agreements, intellectual property, online contracting, internet copyright, source-code appropriation, digital trademarks, domain names, online defamation, products liability, privacy, non-competition, fiduciary duties and other obligations as they relate to the technology and media industries.

We bring a practical and strategic approach to litigation, and make extensive use of arbitration and mediation when appropriate.

Recently, we have been involved in

  • defending the world’s largest ticket services company in proposed class actions brought in multiple Canadian jurisdictions that relate to the sales of tickets over the internet
  • acting for a leading Canadian manufacturer asserting claims that current and former employees had stolen and misused confidential technology belonging to the company
  • representing a large multinational corporation in several arbitration proceedings under the Ontario International Commercial Arbitration Act involving claims for breach of a software development and licensing agreement, copyright infringement and breach of confidence
  • defending a North American manufacturing company against claims that it had misused computer source code, hardware designs and other confidential technology
  • acting for one of the world’s largest information technology companies in disputes involving software licensing and alleged patent infringement
  • defending The Globe and Mail and The Thomson Corporation before the Supreme Court of Canada in a class action concerning the relationship between electronic publishing and digital copyright
  • litigation arising from systems development in the financial services sector
  • licensing disputes concerning consumer processing and investment portfolio management software
  • an Internet service provider in a case that concerned music downloading
  • the defence of claims of software copying and misuse of confidential information against a Canadian financial services company and its U.S. parent
  • a domain name dispute for a major Canadian telecommunications provider
  • a wide range of Internet business disputes and commercial and technology disputes involving a variety of technology, communications and media businesses
  • patent litigation in the financial services, consumer goods and construction industries
  • claims regarding a range of privacy issues arising from the use of technology

Publications

Canada’s Supreme Court Rules That Hyperlinking to Defamatory Material Is Not Publication
Litigation and Dispute Resolution Bulletin
October 26, 2011

The Ontario Court of Appeal's Decision in R. v. Cole: Implications on Workplace Privacy
Article | Lisa K. Talbot
Commercial Litigation Review, vol. 9, no. 2, May 2011

Canadian Court Clarifies Limits of Internet Anonymity
Technology and Communications Bulletin
May 6, 2010