Canadian Lawyer

www.canadianlawyermag.com 9 statute and protection of trade secrets is enforced through common law torts. The Canada-United States–Mexico Agreement will require Canada to legislate a federal statute with civil and criminal elements, says Noel Courage, a patent agent and partner in Bereskin & Parr LLP. This is good news, he says, as federal legislation will provide certainty to businesses and strengthen trade secret laws in the country. "It puts us on more equal footing with other nations that consider themselves tech- nology leaders, such as the U.S., and it's great for these companies that are spending a lot of time and money developing trade secrets," he says. Trade secret laws will also be helpful to companies handling interprovincial and international matters, Courage adds. "Having federal legislation should streamline that process and make it much easier." On Jan. 29, the government intro- duced Bill C-4: An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States, in the House of Commons. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Chrystia Freeland called on MPs and senators to "swiftly" ratify the deal. Bill C-4 also proposed amendments to the Criminal Code, creating a new offence relating to trade secret misappropriation. Currently, protection of trade secrets is covered under fraud in the Code, says Gervas Wall, a founding partner in IP boutique Deeth Williams Wall LLP. Civil enforcement against trade secret misappropriation currently falls under provincial jurisdiction "on a fairly uniform basis," says Wall. Violations are dealt with through a breach of confidence action, breach of contract action or copyright action, he says. Gilbert's LLP's managing partner, Tim Gilbert, and partner Andrew Moeser told Canadian Lawyer the government "may have wiggle room" to argue that the current civil remedies for trade secret violations are adequate. "But there will be renewed focus on the sufficiency of our approach here in Canada compared to the U.S.," says Gilbert. "The problem that I see with overlaying a federal statute on top of that is that we' ll still have the provincial laws and you' ll end up with people suing in one of the courts of the province anyway," he adds, "because they' ll want to combine the common law rights they may have in whatever action it is." Alpha Adroit Forensic Engineering and Expert Opinion Alpha Adroit Engineering Ltd. • Expert Witness • Expert Opinion • Failure Investigation • Forensic Geotechnical Engineering • Remedial Geotechnical Engineering • Forensic Civil Engineering Construction For: • Litigation • Arbitration • Insurance claims • Failure Investigation and Repair www.alphaadroit.ca Toll-Free (Canada only): 1-844-423-7648 Edmonton: 780-708-4110 Calgary: 403-918-4110 Red Deer: 403-918-4115 Vancouver: 778-322-4110 Saskatoon: 306-881-4115 Fort McMurray: 780-607-4114

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