Melanie Baird

Melanie is the head of the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation Group. She is the go-to Canadian litigator for an array of world-leading life sciences and technology companies. An exceptional trial lawyer, she is adept at devising strategic options and navigating cross-border issues.

Melanie has been consistently recognized as a leading litigator both in Canada and globally. She was named IP Litigator of the Year by Benchmark in 2022 and again in 2023. She has been recognized for five consecutive years as one of the Top 100 Women Litigators in Canada and one of the Top 250 Women in IP worldwide and is highly ranked by every major legal directory including Lexpert, IAM Patent 1000 (gold Tier), Legal 500 and Chambers.

Melanie excels at litigating cases in emerging fields. She acted on the first biologic and the first biosimilar drug patent cases in Canada in addition to numerous precedent-setting trials, applications, and appeals. Melanie works extensively with life sciences companies on complex litigation and regulatory issues of all sorts and is intimately familiar with the business of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. In particular, she has extensive experience leading litigation under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations.

Melanie regularly speaks on advocacy and IP topics in Canada and the US. She is an active member of The Advocates’ Society, the Ontario and Canadian Bar Associations, the American Bar Association, the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.