Heer Law

Intellectual Property Litigation; Trademark Litigation; Copyright Litigation; Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection; Trade Secrets and Confidential Information; Domain Name Disputes; Intellectual Property Enforcement; Commercial Litigation

Georgina Danzig is a partner at Heer Law and leads the firm’s intellectual property litigation and anti-counterfeiting enforcement practice.

She is an experienced litigator who appears before the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Her practice focuses on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, including disputes involving trademark infringement, passing off, copyright infringement, industrial design infringement, counterfeiting, confidential information, trade secrets and domain names.

Georgina is particularly recognized for her work in anti-counterfeiting and brand protection. She develops civil, border-enforcement and, where appropriate, criminal-enforcement strategies for rights holders affected by piracy, infringement and counterfeit trade. She assists clients with Canada’s intellectual property border-enforcement regime, including recording rights with the Canada Border Services Agency and responding to detained shipments.

She has extensive experience seeking and implementing extraordinary remedies, including Anton Piller orders, Mareva injunctions, Norwich orders, preservation orders and other forms of interlocutory and injunctive relief. Georgina is also regularly engaged as an independent supervising solicitor in connection with the execution of Anton Piller orders in intellectual property and commercial disputes.

Her work extends beyond civil litigation. She has assisted rights holders in working with police, customs officials, investigators and other professionals in matters involving counterfeit goods, including criminal investigations and the execution of search warrants. She also advises on pre-litigation strategy, negotiated settlements and mediation.

Georgina is recognized as a WTR Global Leader. World Trademark Review 1000 ranks her in the Gold Tier for anti-counterfeiting and the Silver Tier for trademark enforcement and litigation. She is also recognized as an Intellectual Property Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation, a Trade Mark Star by IP STARS and a leading intellectual property lawyer by The Best Lawyers in Canada.

Georgina was called to the Ontario Bar in 1990 and has practised litigation for more than three decades. Following her call to the bar, she served as a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court, then known as the Ontario Court (General Division).

She joined Heer Law in 2021 and became a partner in 2022.

Throughout her career, Georgina has represented rights holders and defendants in complex intellectual property and commercial disputes. Her experience includes obtaining summary and default judgments, injunctions, delivery-up and destruction orders, damages, punitive damages and costs in trademark and copyright matters. She has obtained multimillion-dollar judgments in counterfeiting cases and has acted in proceedings concerning imported counterfeit goods, online and physical-market infringement, confidential information and alleged misconduct by former employees and business competitors.

Georgina has represented clients in industries including apparel, luxury goods, cosmetics, consumer products, e-commerce, footwear, food, manufacturing, sports equipment, toys, technology and vaping products. She also advises on intellectual property licences and assignments, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, distribution arrangements, restrictive covenants, intellectual property ownership and related commercial matters.

She is a recognized commentator on anti-counterfeiting law, policy and enforcement. Georgina authored a guide to Canadian intellectual property for European businesses under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Market Access Programme. She has also contributed to publications addressing Canadian anti-counterfeiting law, intellectual property litigation, border enforcement and the enforcement of judgments.

Georgina has appeared before the Senate of Canada on intellectual property enforcement issues and delivered written and oral submissions on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association concerning the legislation that established Canada’s border-enforcement regime for counterfeit goods.

She is a frequent speaker on anti-counterfeiting, intellectual property remedies, domain name disputes and border enforcement. Her media appearances have included interviews concerning counterfeit goods and the effectiveness of Canada’s intellectual property enforcement regime.

Georgina has held several leadership positions within the Canadian intellectual property bar. She served as Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Intellectual Property Section from 2020 to 2021 and subsequently as Past Chair. She has also chaired the section’s Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Offences Committee and co-chaired its Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

English

• Law Society of Ontario

• Canadian Bar Association

• Intellectual Property Institute of Canada

• International Trademark Association

• International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition

• Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network

• Federal Court Practice Committee, Canadian Bar Association

• Anti-Counterfeiting Committee, Intellectual Property Institute of Canada

• Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Working Group

• Past Chair, Canadian Bar Association, National Intellectual Property Section

• Former Chair, Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Offences Committee, Canadian Bar Association, National Intellectual Property Section

• Former Co-Chair, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Canadian Bar Association, National Intellectual Property Section