Yoon Kang

About Yoon Kang

Drug companies facing complex patent fights at the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal often have Yoon Kang as lead counsel, including in proceedings under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations. Kang's a Principal with Smart & Biggar in Toronto, in the life sciences litigation group. Outside court, the work means advising pharmaceutical innovators from around the world and research institutions on their patent rights, whether the invention is a small molecule drug or a biologic.

Kang's a Fellow of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada and a former co-chair of the Canadian Bar Association's Patents and Industrial Design Committee. There've also been talks on Canadian pharma patents in Boston and Amsterdam, and teaching sessions at Osgoode Professional Development and the University of Toronto's law school.

Science came first. Before finishing a law degree at the University of Toronto in 1993, Kang earned a bachelor's in microbiology and genetics and then a master's in molecular biology and medical genetics at the same school. The Ontario call followed in 1995, the same year as registration as a patent agent and as a trademark agent, and Kang's also registered to practise before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

One appeal shaped Canadian patent law. Kang and the team took AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc to the Supreme Court of Canada, and in 2017 the court threw out the so-called promise doctrine and set out what utility actually requires for a Canadian patent.