Nikita Stepin practises in all areas of commercial technology and intellectual property law as well as intellectual property litigation before the Federal Court of Canada and Federal Court of Appeal. Mr. Stepin provides legal advice and services relating to corporate and commercial transactions involving technology and intellectual property rights, including the negotiation and drafting of software as a service agreements, technology sales agreements, research and development agreements and intellectual property licences among other technology-related contracts. He has acted on both sides of multinational mergers and acquisitions, patent purchases and sales, and licensing and IP transactions.

His practice also extends to advising clients on compliance with all Canadian federal and provincial privacy and data management laws, cybersecurity breaches and reporting, data protection and negotiating the intellectual property aspects of corporate mergers and acquisitions, including with respect to insurance coverage on intellectual property, IT, privacy and various technology aspects.

Mr. Stepin completed a secondment at the legal division of Pfizer Canada Inc., where he worked directly for the general counsel and vice-president, legal and his team on a wide variety of  mandates, allowing him to gain a unique understanding of what our clients need from their external counsel. Mr. Stepin has particular experience with complex pharmaceutical and medical-device patent infringement and impeachment actions, as well as prohibition proceedings under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations.

In law school, Mr. Stepin was involved in researching and editing several intellectual property-related theses and publications for McGill University’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and in managing and organizing symposiums and seminars. He also acted as research and teaching assistant for the McGill University Intellectual Property course, volunteered at the McGill Legal Information Clinic and served as external ambassador for the Faculty of Law.

He frequently publishes legal updates on the Norton Rose Fulbright blog pertaining to recent developments in copyright and patent law.