CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDY - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

An International Corporation had made an appropriate application to register a Canadian trademark that was eerily similar to the trademark our client had registered and was currently using in Canada. Counsel of our international client advised that if the other corporation’s trademark application was granted it would lead to consumer confusion and a potential loss of market share of our client’s trademark protected product.

We were retained to investigate the availability of the other name already in use, but not protected by a trademark, in the Canadian marketplace. Our Investigators queried a number of Canadian on-line retailers and discovered our client’s product commingled with the product we were investigating. We were able to confirm that the alternate product was deliverable to Canada from the international on-line retailers.

The second phase of our investigation was to physically visit retailers throughout Ontario to locate the applicant’s marketable merchandise for sale alongside our client’s products. We were successful in locating numerous examples in retail locations that both products were for sale side by each. Counsel in concert with our Investigators created in-depth affidavits complete with appendices that contained the requisite evidence via website screen captures and website order forms to support counsel’s contention of a potentially confused consumer.

CASE STUDY - COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

A multi-national corporation suspected that a competitor was intending to construct a new beverage producing plant in Ontario. Our firm was tasked with identifying the location of the new facility, determining the capacity and production capabilities of the plant, the product roll-out date as well as sourcing of the raw materials for the beverage product, thereby gaining competitive intelligence for our client.

Our Investigators were able to glean from the competitor’s publicly available internal communiqué’s that the new plant would be erected in a small town in southern Ontario. The next step of our investigation was to visit the municipal offices of the Town to examine documents filed with the Planning and Building Departments. We were able to view the detailed blueprints for the new facility and thereby determine the exact location of the plant, the overall size and production capabilities of the complex.

The Building Department was in possession of a schedule of completion dates for the construction of the facility effectively providing a construction end date and therefore an approximate roll out date of the new juice product. Hiring notices filed in the local newspaper revealed the scope of the number of employees required.

The location of the proposed plant was in close proximity to a freshwater river and meetings with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment confirmed that the new plant would draw water from the river to; assist in the manufacture of the product, to cool production machinery and discharge approved effluent back into the waterway. The foregoing competitive intelligence assisted our client in preparation of the impending launch of the competitor’s new product.

CASE STUDY - DUE DILIGENCE

An Investment Firm from the United States, a longstanding client, received a sophisticated prospectus, complete with a scale model from an individual who wanted USD$20 million to construct a multi-use medical development in Nevada. The individual, purported to be a Canadian citizen from Alberta, included in his proposal that he currently owned four large rental apartment buildings in Alberta that were unencumbered.

The subject also offered his hotel in Whistler, BC as additional collateral in an attempt to secure his financing. Our investigation on this individual began in Alberta, where we were able to learn through land registry searches and corporation profiles that this subject did not own any of the rental income buildings, but was a tenant of a studio apartment in one of the buildings.

Finally, we verified that the subject did not own a hotel in Whistler and the hotel he purported to own had launched civil litigation against him over an unpaid room account. Our client was pleased to learn that our investigation thwarted a potential Advance Fee Fraud.