Lexpert Roundup on the Business of Law
Lexpert identifies and reports on emerging business issues and practice areas in the business of law. Whether online, in our magazine or in the DealsWire e-newsletter, we chronicle deals and lawsuits of interest, and cover issues of broad concern to the legal profession and those who purchase legal services. We hope you enjoy this sample of our latest content.
From the DealsWire: Cara-St. Hubert, Maverix, Progressive Waste reverse takeover
The Lexpert DealsWire (subscribe here) documents facts, figures and key legal players behind recent deals. This week's announced deal spotlight features the key players and figures in the sale of Enbridge's regional pipeline system in Saskatchewan to Tundra Energy Marketing Ltd.
In our closed deals section, we look at the legal teams on Cara buying St-Hubert to expand its footprint in Québec as well as Seven Generations Energy acquiring oil and gas assets from Paramount Resources.
We also look at the players behind Maverix Metals acquiring a streaming and royalties portfolio from Pan American Silver. Finally, we feature the legal teams on the blockbuster reverse merger of Progressive Waste Solutions and Waste Connections.
Trademarks: Trolls at the Gate
In a few short years, amendments will enable anyone to register a trademark, whether or not they have a legitimate commercial application in mind for the mark, and they will be able to do so without the necessity of showing prior use. This, lawyers say, will significantly increase the cost of trademark protection for Canadian business.
The Problem with Canadian Venture Financing
Everyone agrees that innovation is great and we need more of it – but it takes serious money to take an early-stage company with $4-million or $5-million in revenue and transform it into a company with $100-million in revenue. In Canada, "there's a real challenge in getting to that next phase," says Karam Bayrakal at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. In the past few years, Canadian start-ups have seen a lot more funding from the US and countries outside Canada than from inside the country, and in larger amounts.
On the Deal Q&A: The Mineral Bank
First Mining Finance has been on an acquisition spree recently, picking up eight assets over the past year and a half – none of which it intends to develop. Why not? Because First Mining is not a mining company. Rather, it's a "mineral bank," which picks up junior mining assets during bear markets, ceases operations and simply sits on them until markets recover. Tamaka Gold's shareholders were full of questions. Lexpert interviewed lawyers on the deal.
Simultaneous Jeopardies
When an organization faces a crisis, it nearly always faces two kinds of jeopardy: legal and reputational. In the crisis-management field, these two jeopardies have long been dealt with consecutively. The legal issues would take precedence, and once those were sorted, we'd move on to fix the reputational problems. Well, times have changed, writes Navigator executive chair Jaime Watt in this month's Change Agent column.
Blockchain Reaction: Part II
Bitcoin may seem uncontrollable, but so did the internet back in the day. Eventually, legal systems emerge, writes McCarthy Tétrault LLP's George Takach. In this month's legal tech column, Takach provides a survey of the legal issues implicated by blockchain and bitcoin.
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