Jon is a partner in Heenan Blaikie’s Toronto litigation department and a member of the firm's Executive Committee. Jon leads the firm’s intellectual property litigation team, a team that has received recognition from Chambers Global, Managing IP, the Practical Law Company, and others. Heenan Blaikie’s patent litigation group received Managing Intellectual Property magazine’s “Firm of the Year 2010 – Canada - Patent Contentious” award and had previously received the 2008 “Canada-Patent Case of the Year” award.

Jon has been recognized by Chambers Global (Band 3) and the Practical Law Company (Recommended) for his expertise and accomplishments in patent litigation. He is named as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the area of intellectual property in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Woodward/White) and as one of the “World’s Leading Life Sciences Patent Litigators” by Intellectual Asset Management (2010).

Jon is a very experienced litigator, appearing regularly before all levels of Ontario and Federal Courts. In addition he has represented clients in complex intellectual property mandates (patents, trade-marks and copyright); he has litigated a wide variety of patents from pharmaceutical to mechanical. Jon has acted in corporate/commercial and shareholder’s disputes for both public and private companies and their shareholders, business disputes involving both contract and tort claims, fraud claims, share valuations, employment and construction disputes, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, receiverships, tax and labour related litigation, product liability claims (including defending class actions) and defamation claims. He has considerable experience as trial counsel, in prosecuting and defending injunctions and other pre-trial remedies, and on appeals and applications for judicial review. 

Jon is a member of the Ontario Bar Association, the Advocates’ Society (past Director), the Metropolitan Toronto Lawyers Association, the American Trial Lawyers’ Association and the International Bar Association. Jon has taught civil litigation at the Bar Admission Course (Law Society of Upper Canada), advocacy at the Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop (Osgoode Hall Law School) and Advanced Civil Procedure as an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

Acted for a group of leading American magazine publishers and the Magazine Publishers of America, Inc. in proceedings to enforce their copyright and trade-marks by preventing ongoing infringement through the posting  of magazines on “mygazines.com”. The website was designed to encourage the posting of entire magazines, and to promote infringement of the publishers’ intellectual property rights by making the magazines publicly available at no charge. Upon the commencement of proceedings, our clients’ magazines were removed from the website.

Acting for Teva Canada Limited and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. with respect to a wide variety of matters including pharmaceutical patent infringement actions and injunctions, proceedings under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations, commercial litigation and judicial review proceedings. Recently, Jon was lead counsel on two important patent trials for Teva Canada Limited, in which the challenged patents were held invalid.

Successfully resisted a motion for an injunction brought against Warner Bros. by a Winnipeg-based folk band in which the plaintiff sought to prevent the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The Court dismissed the plaintiff’s motion, holding that the release of the movie would not result in passing off and would not damage the plaintiff’s reputation.

Counsel for a number of individuals, corporations and charitable organizations successfully pursuing defamation claims against various media defendants, including The Globe and Mail, the National Post and CTV. Individual clients include prominent persons in a variety of professions, as well as the winner of a national literary award, whose claim to authorship of his prize winning work had been challenged.

Ongoing representation of Home Depot of Canada Inc. in a variety of litigation matters, including product liability and commercial litigation.

Litigation counsel to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a number of complex commercial litigation matters.

Representation of Hartco Corporation, one of Canada’s largest distributors of computer hardware, software and related services, along with its subsidiaries, including Metafore Corporation, on a wide range of commercial litigation matters, intellectual property claims, employment law, franchise disputes and breach of fiduciary duty and breach of trust claims.

Acting for America OnLine Inc. and AOL Canada Inc., and other entities in the telecommunication industry, including major and minor telephone service providers, in a variety of matters, including employment litigation and claims involving breaches of fiduciary duties and restrictive covenants.

Products liability and general commercial litigation advice and representation for Otis Elevator Company, Otis Canada and Carrier Canada, members of the United Technologies group of companies.

Primary litigation counsel for Meridian Technologies Inc., a leading manufacturer of car parts, on a variety of commercial and intellectual property litigation mandates.

Litigation representation for Family Channel Inc., Astral Media and other entertainment companies.

Acting for Bell, FedEx, Air Canada and others in connection with picketing activities and the regulation of conduct in strike-related contexts, primarily through injunctions.

Acted for ITT Industries in claims made against Alcatel arising out of a transaction valued in excess of $100 million US, with concurrent proceedings in Ontario, Virginia and California.

Acted for VenGrowth, a labour sponsored venture capital investment firm, in shareholder oppression claims and receivership applications concerning investments in high technology incubator companies.

Established a precedent by successfully arguing that the right to use a domain name does not constitute “property” in Ontario.

Significant experience with pre-trial remedies, including injunctions to secure assets pending trial (Mareva injunctions) or to prevent breaches of non-solicitation and non-competition agreements, and Anton Piller orders.

Acted for the company seeking relief, its officers and directors, secured and unsecured creditors, tenants and others in applications under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangements Act, including the negotiation of claims, of indemnities for officers and directors, and acting to preserve and enhance stakeholders’ interests.

Acted for shareholders of both public and private companies in litigation disputes over ownership and control, valuation of shares and advancing and defending claims under the oppression remedy provisions of the Business Corporations Act of Ontario and Canada. Representative corporations include Tahera Corporation (formerly Lytton Minerals Ltd.), BGR Precious Metals Inc. and UBS.