Happy new year! IP Osgoode is happy to be kicking off 2016 with a dynamic series of events and activities. Adding to this excitement is the fantastic news about The Honourable Mr. Rothstein’s appointment as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School (OHLS). Mr. Rothstein will be involved with some our activities and events. It is therefore our great pleasure to provide you with a sneak preview of what we have planned for the first half of 2016 and encourage our readership to participate.

EVENTS

IP Osgoode Speaks Series

Adding to our line-up of guest speakers for the IP Osgoode Speaks Series are two very public and dynamic speakers.

Jerry Agar on “I Don’t Care About You”
January 20, 2016, 12:30 - 2:30 PM, OHLS room 2027

Jerry Agar is the host of the Jerry Agar Show which launched in 2010 and airs on NEWSTALK 1010 weekdays 9 am to noon. Mr. Agar will be providing his perspective on effectively leveraging broadcast media for your cause. Click for more details.

Professor Abraham Drassinower on his new book "What's Wrong with Copying?"
March 2, 2016, 12:30 - 2:30 PM, OHLS room 2027

Professor Drassinower is an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, and chair in the Legal, Ethical and Cultural Implications of Technological Innovation. He will be discussing his new book "What's Wrong with Copying?". Associate Dean Carys Craig and Professor Bita Amani will be providing comments. Click for more details.

 

Orphan Works Licensing Portal Hackathon
February 3-5, 2016, OHLS room 1014

Click here for the event website.

IP Osgoode has teamed up with Canadian Heritage to host a hackathon where representatives from different stakeholder groups collaborate together to develop new solutions for a more user-friendly and effective online licensing system for Canadian orphan works.

The who's who of the copyright law community will be participating. The hackathon will be a multi-day event where teams composed of members from each of the different stakeholder groups such as, creators, policy makers, computer and law students, legal professionals, and representatives from archival institutions, collective societies, and libraries, will use Design Thinking, a user-centric design process pioneered by Stanford's d.school, to tackle the issues and inefficiencies with the current orphan works licensing regime and generate new solutions for an online orphan works licensing portal that address the needs of different stakeholders.

An award will be given to the team with the most promising idea midway through the event, and then a final award to the team with the best prototype at the conclusion of the event.

If you are interested in participating in this event, please click here to fill out an invitation request form.

 

UNPACK SODRAC: Tech Neutrality, Reproduction Rights and Mandatory Tariffs after CBC v SODRAC (SCC 2015) Symposium
February 25, 2016, 12:30 - 5:30 PM, OHLS room 1006

A half day symposium organized by Osgoode and the University of Toronto on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in CBC v SODRAC. The event will consist of three panels focused on distinct issues in the case, and will feature a mixture of practitioners (including some of the lawyers directly involved in the Supreme Court litigation, representing the parties or intervenors) and academics whose work directly addresses these issues (including several whose work was cited by the Court). The event will be important not only as a way to digest and debate the decision of the Court, but also as a way to explore potential implications for future copyright cases including the Access Copyright litigation against York University.

 

Effective IP Strategy to Drive Innovation Lunch Seminar
March 9, 2016, 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM, McCarthy Tétrault's Toronto Office (live streaming will be available for viewing at Osgoode Hall Law School, room to be confirmed)

IP Osgoode has teamed up with McCarthy Tétrault LLP to host a luncheon seminar focused on intellectual property issues in the financial industry sector. The event will consist of two panels, the first panel will discuss the key developments in US and Canadian intellectual property law relevant to the banking sector, and the second panel will discuss developing a world-class intellectual property strategy for the banking sector. For those unable to attend the event downtown, there will be a viewing room set up here at Osgoode for a live streaming of the event, room to be confirmed.

 

IP INTENSIVE PROGRAM

IP Osgoode is gearing up to recruit top notch Osgoode students for the IP Intensive program. In anticipation of the Clinical Education Information Session happening on Wednesday, January 13, 2016, IP Osgoode's blog, the IPilogue, will be posting blogs from past students about their placement experiences. To watch a short video about the program, click here.

 

IPILOGUE

Stay tuned to the IPilogue as we will be posting our IP Year in Review blog and a series of blogs related to the IP chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The IPilogue will be issuing a call on our website for IPilogue Editors for the summer term.  We encourage students (JD, LLM, PhD) from Osgoode and universities across Canada and worldwide  to apply.

Each year, through the sponsorship of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, four Gowlings Best Blog in IP Law and Technology prizes are awarded to full-time Osgoode students. The recipients for the 2014-2015 academic year were announced on our website. We encourage Osgoode students to write a blog on an IP related topic and/or submit a comment to any one of the blogs posted on our website.  The deadline to submit a blog to iposgoode@osgoode.yorku.ca or post a comment is April 8, 2016.

 

The IPIGRAM

The IPIGRAM is IP Osgoode's e-newsletter. It pulls together our IPilogue posts with events listings, IP in the News and the IP Pick of the Week (which showcases a blog or website, quite often belonging to one of our members). In order to keep abreast of the latest in IP and technology in Canada and around the world, please do subscribe to the IPIGRAM.

 

INNOVATION CLINIC

The Innovation Clinic is now in its fifth year of operation. In collaboration with Innovation York and Torys LLP, we continue to expand our client base and provide our students with a valuable and unique experiential learning opportunity. We will be putting out a call on our website for clinic fellows for the 2016 summer term.  We encourage Osgoode students to apply.

 

CANADA'S IP WRITING CHALLENGE

Each year, through our partnership with the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC), IP Osgoode runs a writing competition in order to further enhance intellectual property public policy research and discussion. This competition is open to three categories of entrants: JD students, LLM and PhD students, and practitioners.

The winner of the 2015 IP Writing Challenge was announced on our website, we are grateful for Justice Roger Hughes, Dan Bereskin, and Prof. Ikechi Mgbeoji for judging the competition.

The deadline for entrants to submit their articles for the 2016 IP Writing Challenge is July 1, 2016, 5 PM EDT. For the competition rules, click here.

 

IP Osgoode is grateful for the support and contributions of our advisory board, our IP professors and research associates, Dean Sossin and his team, and our founding sponsors: Gowlings, Cassels Brock, and McCarthy Tétrault.

We look forward to continue the growth of IP Osgoode together. If you have any ideas for our program, would like to get more involved, or have any IP & tech related research projects or activities to announce, we would love to hear from you.

With all good wishes for a fantastic new year and hope to see you at our events!