Joshua Dallmann is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and an IP Osgoode Student Intern in the inaugural Intellectual Property Law & Technology Intensive Program (IP Intensive).

On September 8, 2011, members of the intellectual property law community gathered at the Toronto offices of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP to celebrate the release of the long-awaited second edition of Professor David Vaver’s book Intellectual Property Law: Copyright, Patents, Trade-Marks.

First to speak was The Honourable Justice Roger T. Hughes, who had high praise for Vaver’s book, saying that the second edition “improves on what was already very, very good.”  He went on to say that it is an impartial look at the challenges we face in intellectual property law, and that it “attacks the tough stuff beautifully and understandably.”

Next we heard from Jeffrey Miller, from the publisher Irwin Law, who thanked Professor Vaver for his leap of faith in trusting him with his manuscript for the first edition 14 years ago, when Irwin Law was just starting out.  He recalled how the first edition went on to become an authority on intellectual property law in Canada; and stated how the second edition has already been cited by the Supreme Court, while still remaining “readable, accessible, and entertaining.”

Then the guest of honour, Professor Vaver, spoke a few words.  He stated that, since the first edition of his book was published fourteen years ago, intellectual property law has grown from an esoteric field to what it is today; and in that time, he did not expect the first edition to become the authority that it did.  Due to these reasons, the new edition contains more case law and nuances in order to paint a more detailed picture of intellectual property law in Canada.  To close, Professor Vaver said that he hopes the new edition will stimulate discussion in Canada around intellectual property law reform and, paraphrasing Einstein, he closed with a statement that applied not only to his vision of reform, but to his new book as well: “Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

The evening ended on a high note with a surprise announcement from Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino that she and Professor Vaver are collaborating on a long-awaited second edition of Professor Vaver’s book Copyright Law, which was last published in 2000.