Stephanie N. Vaccari

Stephanie N. Vaccari

Partner
Baker & McKenzie LLP

Biography

Stephanie Vaccari heads Baker McKenzie's Intellectual Property Tech Practice Group in Toronto. She leads the Toronto office Industrial Design and Transactional IP team and co-leads its IP Portfolio Management and Trademark Enforcement teams. Stephanie also serves as co-chair of Baker McKenzie's Toronto Consumer Goods and Retail Group, its Baker Women's Networking Group and is spearheading the Toronto office's Luxury and Fashion Group. Stephanie is described in the 2018 World Trademarks Review as a lawyer who has “complete mastery of the law and is practical and commercially minded.” She graduated from the University of Western Ontario Law School and received a Bachelor of Sciences degree (Biology Specialist) from the University of Toronto, where she graduated with distinction.

Practice Focus

Stephanie advises industry clients on a broad range of IP-related matters. She has extensive trade mark-related experience, has assisted global clients with worldwide trade mark portfolios, and represented them in opposition and cancellation proceedings. She has experience in transactional IP and has also participated in a variety of complex lawsuits dealing with, among others, trade mark and copyright infringement, patent infringement and validity, Internet and domain name issues, licensing, unfair competition and passing off.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Manages global trade mark portfolios of Fortune 500 companies.
  • Acted on numerous trade mark oppositions, including oppositions protecting famous marks.
  • Represented fashion and luxury clients in domain name dispute matters.
  • Managed IP portion of corporate transaction valued over $249 million and considered one of the "Big Deals" in the Canadian publication, Lexpert.
  • Acted on trade mark passing-off actions involving large confectionery companies.
  • Acted on trade mark infringement action between two large US and Canadian communication companies.
  • Acted on international arbitration between a US pharmaceutical company and a university involving a USD 30 million patent license dispute.

Professional Honors

  • Recognized Lawyer, Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Women in Business Law for Intellectual Property (2019 and 2021)
  • Recognized Lawyer, IAM Patent 1000 for Patent Law (2020)
  • Recognized Leader in Intellectual Property and Trademark Law, World Intellectual Property Review (2017-2018, and 2020)
  • Winner, Intellectual Property – Trademarks in Ontario, Client Choice Awards (2016-2017)
  • Ranked, Individuals (Silver): Enforcement and Litigation, World Trademark Review 1000 (2016-2018, and 2020-2021)
  • Ranked, Individuals (Silver): Transactions, World Trademark Review 1000 (2020)
  • Ranked, Individuals (Silver): Prosecution and Strategy, World Trademark Review 1000 (2016, 2018, and 2020-2021)

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • Canadian Bar Association
  • International Trademark Association (INTA) - Canada Trademark Office Practices Committee (2021)
  • International Trademark Association (INTA) - Non-Traditional Marks Committee (2010-2013 and 2018-present)
  • International Trademark Association (INTA) - Trademark Offices Practices Committee (2014-2017)
  • International Trademark Association (INTA) - Table Topics Committee (2016)
  • Ontario Sports Hall of Fame

Admissions

  • Ontario~Canada (1997)

Education

  • University of Western Ontario (LL.B.) (1995)
  • University of Toronto (B.S., Honours) (1992)

Languages

  • English
  • French
  • Italian

Author, Chapter on "Oppositions," Lexus Practice Advisor

Co-organizer and Speaker, "Transformational Leaders Forum for Women: Complex Problems Require Collaborative Solutions," November 2017

Interviewed, "Rush to Register Trademarks Before 2019," in Law Times, September 2017 

Speaker, "Canadian Anti-counterfeiting and Trade Secrets," at MIP International Women's Leadership Forum in NY, June 2017

Speaker, "Global Management of a Brand in a Coherent Way," at MIP Luxury Brand and Retail Forum in NY, April, 2017