not professional one because patent is not my background. nevertheless
if you believe the patent should provide you the protection of your trade secretes (not all patents really work if others can easily modify an dmake it work so that you can hardly prove in court it is an infringe on your patented rights....
id you do know the canadian biz has u.s. interests so that when you file with a u.s. court and can seize those assets to get them to respond....
sure
but this only if you can make a case on the ground of infringe of your patent rights
which requires
1. the patent is there
2. you can prove they have copied exactly yours
the u.s. jurisdiction over them will then be able to move in. it will be the matter of the size of the stake: is it worthy of a litigation to pursue all the way, or just threat them to get them settle outside the court...
so the questions goes back to your patent: how confident you are about the protection
comparing to NDA, patent infringement will be a stronger case, especially if you could document the direct and indirect financial losses and damages caused by the consequences derived from and associated with their action/inaction...there may be a room for inpunitive damages....
