How I can help your business 

• Provide pragmatic, practical, cost-effective and business-focused guidance to use IP as a tool to advance your business objectives.

• Guide you through patent prosecution and IP portfolio strategy and management to secure and grow commercially relevant IP rights.  

• Lead and support freedom‑to‑operate, product launch clearance, and offensive patent filing initiatives to manage risk and create competitive advantage.  

• Deliver sector‑specific advice on IP strategy, licensing, and due diligence for start‑ups and emerging companies, informed by engineering, legal, and commercial experience. 

Overview & Expertise 

Kevin Shipley is an engineer, patent agent, lawyer, trusted advisor and (self-professed) all-around good guy based in Marks & Clerk’s Toronto office. He is the Head of Mechanical & Industrial Processes (Canada) and is a member of our patents group. 

En route to Marks & Clerk Kevin obtained degrees in mechanical engineering, economics and law, and has spent several years honing his craft and developing a practice based on patent prosecution and IP portfolio strategy and management. Kevin also has significant experience in large-scale freedom-to-operate and product launch/clearance projects (to avoid getting into trouble) as well as aggressive patent portfolio mining and offensive patent filing projects (to create trouble for competitors). He also opines on patent validity and infringement, and provides advice relating to IP licenses, confidentiality agreements and other IP-related agreements, and advising on IP due diligence in M&A transactions.  

Having been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug (but not quite enough to quit his day job), Kevin focuses a portion of his practice on working with start-up and emerging companies. He has worked with and provided support to a number of start-up incubators in south-western Ontario, including our partnership with Innovation Factory. For these clients, Kevin provides assistance with developing early-stage and ongoing IP strategy, identifying commercially relevant innovations and securing registered IP rights, and leveraging and licensing IP assets for commercial advantage. Kevin also generally serves as a sounding board for business strategy development. This commitment to finding solutions for his clients has resulted in Kevin being repeatedly recognized in the IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists, and the IAM Patent 1000. He is also a co-author for the Trade Secret Protection: A Global Guide book. 

Kevin is the currently Vice-Chair of the Commercialisation of Data and IP Committee for AIPPI, a member of the IPIC Foundation Committee, a member of the LES Canada & USA Education Committee, member of the international Membership Committee for AIPPI, a member of AIPPI Canada and a volunteer mentor for the UofT Entrepreneurial Hatchery program. He also serves as a lecturer at the IPIC/McGill University Summer IP Courses. 

When away from his computer, Kevin is an avid karaoke fan, enjoys all things home theatre and stereo related, dabbles with smart home and IoT-related gadgets, and enjoys the endless pain and suffering of running a salt-water, coral reef fish tank. He also enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons, who are less interested in Intellectual Property and instead prefer playing soccer and hockey, building Lego and reading books about wizards, Star Wars, Dogman or mythical heroes. 

Client work & Case Experience 

Nuclear Energy sector – Advises a major Canadian energy and technology organization on the majority of their new patent drafting and prosecution matters. Also provides strategic advice and guidance regarding IP-related issues, including inventor/employment issues, patent filing options and strategy, and joint venture/joint research agreements.

Clean Energy sector – Advises a Canadian clean energy technology company on IP protection strategy, preparing and prosecuting multiple patent families and coordinating global patent prosecution. Also assists in competitive intelligence review of competitor patent filing activities outside Canada.  

Mining & Natural resources sector – Manages the global patent and trademark portfolio related to critical resource processing and recycling for a major mining & natural resource company. Also oversees patent origination, drafting and prosecution for Canadian operations.