Harold G. Fox
| Harold George Fox | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1896 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 1970 London, England |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Lawyer, scholar, businessman |
Harold George Fox, QC (1896 – 1970) was a Canadian lawyer, scholar, and businessman. He was widely known for his texts on Canadian intellectual property law, litigation, and for his involvement in the zipper business (first as a lawyer and later as managing director of the Lightning Fastener Company in association with Gideon Sundback).
Harold Fox was born in 1896 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He attended the University of King's College and Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1919, and began practice as an intellectual property lawyer with Fetherstonhaugh & Co (now known as Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh) in Toronto. He advanced quickly in the profession, becoming a partner of the firm in 1923 along with Frederick Fetherstonhaugh to form Fetherstonhaugh & Fox. However, by 1927, Fox had left to start his own practice. In 1937, he was created a King's Counsel.
Fox married Ethel Croston in England in 1934, but they had no children together.
Fox published his first book with Fetherstonhaugh in 1926, titled The Law and Practice of Letters Patent of Invention in Canada. By the 1940s, Fox had published three landmark treatises on intellectual property, one each on Canadian patent law, copyright law, and trademark law. These books were some of the first comprehensive treatises on the subject of Canadian intellectual property law, and have been widely cited since by courts and academics. He also published a series of annotated law reports entitled "Fox's Patent Cases" focusing on Canadian intellectual property law, which was widely distributed in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
As a lawyer, Fox was involved in numerous intellectual property law cases, the most famous of which were the "zipper" cases on behalf of the Lightning Fastener Company.Gideon Sundback, the owner of numerous patents related to zippers, had set up the Lightning Fastener Company in St. Catharines, Ontario to manufacture and sell zippers. Sundback retained Fox to protect his patent rights, which resulted in a series of landmark cases decided at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Privy Council. Sundback, however, could not afford to pay Fox in cash, and so arranged to pay for his legal services in shares of the Lightning Fastener Company. By the late 1930s Fox stepped back from his role as lawyer and became the managing director of the company, relocating to St. Catharine's at the same time. He saw the company through the Second World War, after which the company became greatly profitable. At one point, the Lightning Fastener Company owned 60% of the global zipper market.
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