Cameron Gale

About Cameron Gale

Cameron Gale is a principal at Smart & Biggar in Toronto who works as both a lawyer and a patent agent. With an electrical engineering background, Gale concentrates on getting protection for complex, fast-moving technology: artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, computer architecture, data encryption, telecommunications and networks, and image and data processing. Clients range from start-ups and universities to small and mid-sized businesses and multinational corporations.

Much of the work is drafting patent applications that go on to be filed in other countries, then guiding clients through prosecution in Canada, the United States, Europe, China and Australia. Gale also gives patentability, infringement and freedom to operate opinions, and handles both getting and enforcing IP rights. On the business side, that means looking after IP portfolios and the risks around them, building monetization plans, and helping with technology deals such as licensing or selling IP rights.

Gale makes a point of shaping each IP protection plan around what the client's business actually needs, so the IP becomes something it can use to hit its goals. Called to the Ontario bar in 2014, Gale became a registered patent agent in both Canada and the US in 2016, after earning a J.D. from the University of Toronto and an electrical engineering degree from McGill. Gale's articles cover topics like foreign filing licences and using IP to stay competitive with dual-use technology.