6-min read
Last updated: 16 September 2026
Data in this report is sourced from IP Pilot and is accurate as of September 2026, based on the number of patent filings first published between 2021 and 2025. Because patent data may be subject to reporting delays in public databases, figures may fluctuate over time. International case exchange figures are based on the top 1,000 search results in IP Pilot for each direction.
Canada occupies a distinctive position among the jurisdictions IP Pilot tracks: a bilingual, common-law-and-civil-law market with deep economic integration with the US, and a Quebec-based francophone IP bar operating alongside its common-law counterparts elsewhere in the country. Between 2021 and 2025, 218,455 patent filings were recorded across 992 firms, agents, and self-represented applicants — but that volume is heavily concentrated. The top 50 firms alone accounted for 199,657 filings, or 91.4% of the total market, and the top 25 accounted for 176,658 filings — 80.9% of everything filed in Canada over the period. For a market with nearly a thousand active filers, that is a striking degree of concentration in a small set of firms.
This report ranks the 25 largest patent prosecution firms in Canada by published filing volume from 2021–2025, examines how that volume shifted year over year, and looks at where Canadian filings originate and where they are sent — before drawing out what the patterns mean for firms building referral relationships in this market.
Rank: Top 25 Patent Prosecution Firms in the US
Canada: Number of Patent Applications and Shares of Foreign Filings per Firm
Smart & Biggar leads Canadian patent prosecution by a wide margin, with 37,475 filings over the period — more than 11,000 filings ahead of second-placed Gowling WLG (25,967) and nearly three times the volume of third-placed Norton Rose Fulbright (13,459). ROBIC, the leading Quebec-based firm, ranks fourth with 13,154 filings, followed by Bereskin & Parr (11,305) and Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (10,928) to round out the top six.
Foreign filing share varies widely across the ranking. Stikeman Elliott LLP (98%), Finlayson & Singlehurst (95%), Craig Wilson and Company Inc. (95%), Torys LLP and MacRae & Co. (94% each) sit at the top end, reflecting practices built primarily around representing foreign applicants entering Canada.
At the other end, Rowand Intellectual Property Law (37% foreign), Ade & Company (35%), and Own Innovation (41%) skew toward domestic-origin work, and Orin Del Vecchio IP Lawyer stands out for pairing a low foreign share (40%) with the lowest PCT/PCT-based share in the top 50 (12%) — pointing to a practice built mostly around direct national filings rather than PCT national phase entry.
Filing Trends Over Time: A Cooling Market After a 2023 Peak
Filing volume among the top 50 firms rose from 40,202 in 2021 to a peak of 46,494 in 2023, before declining to 28,661 in 2025 — an aggregate change of -28.7% across the period. Given the reporting-lag caveat above, part of that 2025 drop should be read as filings still working their way into public databases rather than a market contraction of that magnitude; even so, the 2023 peak and subsequent pullback are consistent across most firms in the ranking, suggesting a genuine cyclical turn rather than a data artifact alone.
In the top 50, growth is concentrated among smaller, lower-volume firms: Altitude IP (+209%), Orin Del Vecchio IP Lawyer (+190%), Field LLP (+176%), and Own Innovation (+100%) all more than doubled their filing volume — though each is growing from a small base (33 to 300 filings a year), so the percentage swings carry less weight than they would at higher volumes.
Among the larger firms, Smart & Biggar is the standout: the only top-10 firm to grow over the period (+11%), extending its lead at the top of the ranking even as most peers contracted. CPST Intellectual Property Inc. (+21%) and Rowand Intellectual Property Law (+31%) are the next-largest gainers with meaningful absolute volume. A handful of firms held close to flat, suggesting more insulated, steady practices through the same cycle.
International Case Exchange: Canada Between the US and a Wider Referral Network
Canada’s inbound and outbound filing patterns tell different stories. On the inbound side, the United States dominates as the source of foreign filings entering Canada by a wide margin — 35,343 cases, more than seven times the next-largest source, Great Britain (4,905). China (4,396), Germany (3,788), France (3,517), Japan (2,175), and South Korea (2,033) round out the leading inbound sources.
Outbound filings from Canada are considerably more diversified. Great Britain is the leading destination (4,168 cases), narrowly ahead of China (3,783) and the United States (3,708), followed by Australia (2,451), Japan (2,379), Germany (2,153), South Korea (1,534), India (1,429), Brazil (1,274), and Mexico (1,206). The relatively even spread across Commonwealth, European, and Asia-Pacific destinations — rather than a single dominant market — suggests Canadian applicants and their counsel maintain broader multi-jurisdictional filing strategies than the inbound pattern alone would imply, likely reflecting Canada’s Commonwealth ties.
Countries Sending Most Cases to CA: Country Breakdown 2021-2025
Countries Receiving Most Cases from CA: Country Breakdown 2021-2025
Strategic Insights for IP Law Firms
Three patterns stand out for firms building or evaluating referral relationships in the Canadian market:
Concentration among a small set of firms. With the top 25 firms handling 80.9% of all tracked filings and the top 50 handling 91.4%, referral relationships with a relatively small number of players cover the large majority of prosecution work in Canada. Firms outside this group but doing high foreign-share, high-PCT work — such as Kirby Eades Gale Baker (94% foreign, 89% PCT) or CPST Intellectual Property Inc. (one of the few top-25 firms still growing) — may be worth particular attention as they build volume.
Foreign-filing intensity as a resilience signal. As in other jurisdictions IP Pilot has covered, firms with high foreign and PCT filing shares appear to have weathered the 2023–2025 slowdown better than domestically weighted practices. Smart & Biggar‘s continued growth, paired with a 90% foreign share, fits that pattern; firms with lower foreign exposure, sit further down the ranking and may be more exposed to domestic filing cycles.
A distinct bilingual, civil-law segment. Quebec-based firms — ROBIC, Lavery de Billy LLP, BCF Business Law, and Benoît & Côté Inc. — represent a meaningfully sized, francophone civil-law practice area within the Canadian top 50, distinct from the common-law firms concentrated in Ontario and elsewhere. For firms building referral networks that need civil-law or French-language capability alongside common-law coverage, this group forms a natural, self-contained cluster.
Final Thoughts
Canada’s patent prosecution market is smaller in absolute volume than the US or GB markets IP Pilot has previously profiled, but it is more concentrated at the top: fewer than 30 firms account for the large majority of activity across nearly a thousand active filers. Smart & Biggar‘s position atop the ranking — and its continued growth against a broadly softening market — stands out as the clearest signal of scale and durability in this dataset. For firms assessing referral partners in Canada, foreign-filing intensity, PCT specialization, and — for those needing bilingual or civil-law coverage — the Quebec-based cluster are the clearest differentiators in this data.
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