Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School

About 3 years ago, when I decided to join forces with Catherine Ng and Lionel Bently, in editing a collection of essays, The Common Law of Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of David Vaver, I could not think of a more deserving scholar to merit a festschrift.

Friday September 10, 2010 culminated the official release and presentation of the volume to David Vaver, in our very own haunts, at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford. The event, sponsored by our publisher, Hart Publishing, the Intellectual Property Institute and IP Osgoode--along with support and dedication from various members of the University of Oxford, St Peter’s College and Osgoode Hall Law School-- brought together a superb cast of speakers, quite appropriately, joining from various parts of the common law.

The Oxford launch opened with remarks from Prof Graeme Dinwoodie (Director, OIPRC, University of Oxford) and with Prof Lionel Bently (Director, CIPIL, University of Cambridge) who chaired a panel discussing patent litigation in the common law countries, where Mr Justice Floyd (High Court, ChD England & Wales) was present, and Chief Judge Holderman (DCt for the Northern District of Illinois) and Mr Justice Hughes (Federal Court of Canada) joined via video-conferencing. We also had “surprise” greetings from Justice Marshall Rothstein (Supreme Court of Canada) and Lord Justice Robin Jacob (Court of Appeal of England & Wales).

The Common Law of Intellectual Property is a carefully compiled selection of essays written in honour of David Vaver, who recently retired as Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law and Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at the University of Oxford.

We asked some of the world's leading academics, practitioners and judges in the field of intellectual property law, to contribute to this volume and take as their starting point the common assumption that the patent, copyright and trade mark laws within members of the 'common law family' (Australia, Canada, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and so on) share some sort of common tradition. The contributors examine, in relation to particular topics, the extent to which such a shared view of the field exists in the face of other forces that are producing divergence. The essays discuss, inter alia, issues concerning court practices, the medical treatment exception, non-obviousness and sufficiency in patent law, originality and exceptions in copyright law, unfair competition law, and cross-border goodwill and dilution in trade mark law.

The book, which boasts a captivating foreword by Lord Justice Robin Jacob, also inspired a work of art by Victor Nabhan: “Floating”, the book’s cover image.

Among the other treasures in the volume, readers will find David Vaver’s curriculum vitae, which serves as a testament to his scholarship and how he managed to inspire so many distinguished contributors to honour him.

Well, the first book review is out, from the celebrant himself, who has already read the volume from cover to cover and says: “It is a major contribution to the literature.”

To Osgoode’s great fortune, David Vaver is not entirely retired and has rejoined the Osgoode faculty as Professor of Intellectual Property Law and as IP Osgoode’s Advisory Board Member, where he is proliferating more scholarship and innovating the IP curriculum and inspiring many more legions of legal minds.

Hope you enjoy reading this collection as much we enjoyed crafting it for one of IP’s most judicious and inspiring minds.

To order the book at a discounted rate, please visit Hart Publishing online.