Dan So ~ McKenzie Lake

Daniel F. So specializes in franchise, licensing and intellectual property law and heads the franchise law department at McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP. Dan is a member of the Canadian Franchise Association’s legal and legislative committee, and has spoken and written numerous articles about franchising for the Ontario Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Franchise Association, and Franchise Canada magazine. Dan was consulted by the Province of Prince Edward Island for input on their franchise legislation and regulations, and is the official legal advisor at North America’s largest franchise show series. Dan is the author of the best-selling text Canadian Franchise Law Handbook published by Lexis-Nexis Butterworths in 2005.

Dan is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law in the University of Western Ontario, an instructor of Business Law at Kings College at the University of Western Ontario and the Canadian Institute of Management, an instructor at Fanshawe College, and an advisor to Fanshawe College’s International Business Program. In his spare time, Dan is an avid offshore sailor.

Sheila D’Arcy ~ Canada Border Services Agency

Sheila D’Arcy has been a Senior Officer Trade Compliance with the Canada Border Services Agency for 10 years. She currently conducts seminars to assist Canadian businesses involved in international trade to understand the rules and regulations with respect to Importing and Exporting. Sheila has a university degree in economics and marketing and has worked for several government agencies over the last 25 years assisting small businesses in unravelling government red tape.

Canadian Intellectual Property Office of Industry Canada

Intellectual property (IP) refers to the creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, as well as symbols, names, pictures, designs and models used in business. Patents, trade-marks, copyrights, and industrial designs are referred to as "IP rights." Just as rights are acquired when a building or land is purchased, IP rights are "property" in the sense that they are based on the legal right to exclude others from using the property.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), a special operating agency of Industry Canada, is mainly responsible for the administration of the IP system in Canada. Having identified your IP assets, you can start putting in place strategies to safeguard them and prevent others from diminishing your competitive advantage. By learning how to exploit the wealth of strategic information contained in various IP databases, whether they are Canadian or international, you can give your business a competitive edge and really stand out from others.