Daphne Lainson

About Daphne Lainson

Daphne Lainson is a principal at Smart & Biggar whose work centres on patents for chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech inventions, with drugs and biologics at the heart of it. Pharmaceutical companies lean on Lainson for counsel at every stage of a drug's life, from pre-clinical and clinical development through marketing to the point where exclusivity runs out. The inventions involved aren't limited to medicine, though. Medical devices, agrochemicals, consumer products, specialty chemicals and oil and gas technology all fall within the practice.

Chemistry came first. Lainson earned two chemistry degrees at Queen's University, including a master's with a thesis on how lithium and sodium cations interact with sulfuryl and phosphoryl species, before taking an LL.B. at the University of Windsor. The Ontario call and trademark agent registration both came in 2001, patent agent registration in 2002, and registration to practise before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office a year later. Smart & Biggar LLP named Lainson its chairperson effective January 1, 2020. Today the principal is national practice chair of the firm's life sciences and chem/bio patent group and helps manage client relationships in key markets such as the U.S., Japan and Germany.

Much of Lainson's work sits where patents meet drug regulation, including patent listing under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations and PMPRB matters, and Lainson has spoken and written on drug pricing in Canada. Chambers Canada points to deep experience counselling large pharma companies on filing strategy and managing their patent portfolios. Within the wider IP community, Lainson is an AIPLA Fellow and has chaired its Mid-Winter Institutes.

Asked how to describe the job, Lainson puts it plainly: helping companies bring life-saving drugs to Canadians. Dolly Parton is the inspiration, for always learning and never giving up. And if IP hadn't worked out? Animal conservation, with big cats a particular passion.