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