Hill & Schumacher
2 lawyers · Established 1994 · City of Toronto
One of 2,345 law firms listed in Toronto, and one of 195 handling Intellectual Property.
About Hill & Schumacher
Hill & Schumacher is a small intellectual property firm on Avenue Road in midtown Toronto, serving clients around the world since 1994. It was started by registered patent agent Lynn Schumacher and by Nancy Hill, a lawyer, professional engineer and registered patent and trademark agent, and it still operates as a focused team rather than a large practice. The firm drafts and prosecutes patents, trademarks and industrial designs, and it has drafted more than 800 originating patent applications, along with hundreds of trademark filings in Canada and abroad. Its clients range from individual inventors and startups to universities, spanning industries such as medical devices, artificial intelligence, robotics, cleantech and software.
Schumacher earned a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Toronto and worked as an industrial research fellow at the Ontario Hydro Research Division before becoming a registered patent agent in 1992. Hill trained first as a civil engineer, was called to the Ontario bar in 1988, and has practised intellectual property law since 1989. The firm's other registered agents bring similar technical depth: Stephane Levesque holds a Ph.D. in chemical and biomedical engineering and spent nearly a decade managing the University of Toronto's own patent portfolio before joining the firm, and Heather MacKeracher is a licensed trademark agent who also handles Canadian industrial design filings.
Practice areas
Milestones & recognition
- Founded in 1994 by patent agent Lynn Schumacher and by Nancy Hill, a lawyer, professional engineer and patent and trademark agent, the firm has operated continuously from its midtown Toronto office ever since.
- The firm's patent team has drafted more than 800 originating patent applications.
- Founding partner Nancy Hill was named the 100th president of Professional Engineers Ontario at the organization's annual general meeting in Toronto on May 4, 2019, and went on to become a director of Engineers Canada in 2020.
- Registered patent agent Stephane Levesque received the Marie F. Morency Memorial Prize in 2019 for the highest national score on the drafting portion of the Canadian Patent Agent Qualifying Examination.
In the community
- Founding partner Nancy Hill has taught a course on patenting and intellectual property at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies.
- As chair of Professional Engineers Ontario's Women in Engineering Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998, Nancy Hill helped lead an amendment to the Professional Engineers Act adding harassment to the definition of professional misconduct, a first for a professional engineering regulator in Canada.
Good to know
Wheelchair accessible
By appointmentLawyers 2
Who handles what
The neighbourhood
Hill & Schumacher's office sits on Avenue Road in midtown Toronto, a stretch that mixes professional offices with residential streets rather than a courthouse district or a bank tower cluster, and the firm describes itself as serving clients and associates across the globe from that address rather than relying on local walk-in traffic. The practice reads more like a technical office than a typical storefront law firm, which fits how patent and trademark work actually gets done: by phone, by email, and by filing directly with patent and trademark offices in Canada and abroad.
The team's own backgrounds point toward a different kind of local connection than geography. Lynn Schumacher and Stephane Levesque both completed doctoral research at the University of Toronto, and Levesque spent close to a decade managing the university's own patent portfolio at its Innovations and Partnerships Office before joining the firm. Founding partner Nancy Hill trained as a civil engineer at the same university. That thread runs through the client base the firm describes on its site, which includes scientists and university tech transfer professionals alongside startups and established companies.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Hill & Schumacher handle patents for software and AI inventions?
- Yes. The firm lists artificial intelligence and software among the industries it works in, and its patent agents draft applications covering software related technology as part of their regular practice.
- Can Hill & Schumacher help register a trademark outside Canada?
- Yes. The firm files trademark applications for clients in Canada and in foreign jurisdictions, and it has assisted clients with filing in many countries through its network of foreign associates.
- Does the firm work with university researchers and tech transfer offices?
- Yes. Hill & Schumacher describes tech transfer professionals as part of its regular client base, and one of its registered patent agents previously managed the University of Toronto's own patent portfolio for close to a decade before joining the firm.
- How big is Hill & Schumacher, and how long has it been in Toronto?
- The firm has been based in midtown Toronto since 1994. It's a small team built around two founding partners and two additional registered agents, rather than a large multi office practice.
- Does Hill & Schumacher do patentability or freedom to operate searches before filing?
- Yes. The firm offers patentability searches, state of the art searches, freedom to operate analysis and trademark searches as part of its services, alongside patent and trademark drafting and prosecution.
- What is a provisional patent application?
- A provisional patent application is a filing that lasts exactly one year, is never published, does not require formal claims, and costs less than a full patent application. It's often used to establish an early filing date while an invention is still being developed. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where to find them
264 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario Canada M4V 2G7 · 416-368-1097
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