John Harshaw Simpson

John is a member of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada and has been ranked in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as Repeatedly Recommended for Intellectual Property and in the World Trademark Review’s WTR1000 list of the world’s leading trademark practitioners. He has also been recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada™ for Intellectual Property Law since 2022.

John obtained his LL.B. from Western University, Faculty of Law where he was one of the original graduates of the Information and Technology Law program in 2003.

Before attending law school, John worked in the Canadian book and magazine publishing industry and, prior to that, he studied philosophy and political theory in Halifax and in New York City. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. When he is not working, John likes running, cycling, skiing, watching baseball and reading about history.

We acted for the successful appellant in this appeal from an interlocutory injunction order in a trademark infringement and passing off action in the Ontario Superior Court. Three Divisional Court judges unanimously agreed that the Superior Court had erred in each element of the three-part test, including in finding that the plaintiff had established a serious issue to be tried. You can read more about the case in this article about it.

We developed and successfully executed an IP enforcement strategy on Amazon.ca for a skincare products manufacturer that eliminated infringing retailers without the costs and delays of trademark litigation

We represented the successful plaintiff in a trademark infringement action in the Federal Court involving complex issues of what happens to the trademarks of a joint venture after it breaks up. You can read more about this case in our blog post about it.