Our people

Coleen MORRISON

cmorrison@marks-clerk.ca Tel: +1 613 236 9561 extension 241

Managing Principal
Barrister & Solicitor
Trade-Mark Agent

Specialism: Trade-Marks

Coleen graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia with a Bachelor of Science Degree, and subsequently pursued graduate work in Biological Oceanography, and a Law Degree at Dalhousie University.

Coleen is a registered Trade-mark Agent and practicing Lawyer called to the Ontario Bar. She draws on a range of prosecution, opposition, litigation and mediation experience in trademarks, domain names, patents, copyright, industrial design and intellectual property litigation to assist clients including a large number of industry in-house counsel colleagues.

Early in her career Coleen spent a brief period with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), where her area of expertise involved computer / technical / Internet / domain name issues. While with CIPO she represented Canada and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office at some of the first consultative meetings concerning domain names and trade-marks, at both the national and international level. Her involvement in International IP law and in the domain name field continues to date. Coleen joined Marks & Clerk in 1997.

Coleen is very active in the Fédération Internationale des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle (FICPI), serving as Chairman of the International Trade-mark Group. Coleen is also a member of INTA as well as various Intellectual Property Institute of Canada committees including the Trade-mark Practices Committee, the Madrid Protocol Committee and the Legislation Committee. She lecturers at the McGill-IPIC Trade-marks II Summer Course on the topic of IP protection for non-traditional marks including distinguishing guise, three-dimensional marks and the interrelationship of these forms of protection with industrial design. Coleen is also a member of the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Coleen's free time is taken up primarily by her four children, but she is also an avid sailor, both racing and cruising. She survives the long Ottawa winter by skiing and sometimes snowboarding with her children and husband, Hanns.