The IP Innovation Clinic, the first student-based clinic of its kind in Canada, is seeking law students from Osgoode Hall Law School to provide assistance to under-resourced inventors, entrepreneurs and start-up companies with their innovation and commercialization activities.

IP Innovation Clinic Fellows

It is expected that the majority of the work done by students will relate to patent or trademark law.�� The remaining time would be spent working on other IP-related and start-up business related needs as they arise.�� The students’ work will be supervised by lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Bereskin & Parr LLP, and OWN Innovation and may include:

• Performing prior art searches
• Performing trademark searches
• Conducting legal research and drafting legal memos
• Possibly assisting with other steps in the patent prosecution process (i.e. reviewing patent specifications, etc.)
• Client intake and consultations

Note:�� Please note the position is a part-time volunteer position. ��Students may claim OPIR hours for work done at the IP Innovation Clinic.

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• an interest in IP law, technology and commercialization issues
• responsiveness and a commitment to client service
• attention to detail and ability to write clearly and concisely
• excellent time-management, organizational, and interpersonal skills
• you must be entering your 2L or 3L year at Osgoode Hall Law School
• completion of the Legal Values: IP Commercialization Seminar course is not required but would be considered an asset
• completion of the Intellectual Property or Patents course is not required but would be considered an asset

Application Process:

�ٱ𲹻�����Ա�:��Thursday, April 13, 2023

Please provide the following materials via email to��ipinnovationclinic@osgoode.yorku.ca:

• One page cover letter (briefly outlining your interests in IP law)
• Copy of your resume and unofficial grades
• A sample of your written work (max. 750 words)

We thank all applicants for their interest in the positions, but will only contact those selected for an interview.

The post CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: IP Innovation Clinic Fellows (Summer 2023) appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Mac Mok is an IP Innovation Clinic Senior Fellow and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s IP Intensive Program.

This semester, I participated in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property (IP) Law and Technology Intensive program (IP Intensive). The IP Intensive starts with a 2 week seminar series where students are exposed to a variety of IP related topics, followed by a 10 week placement at an organization to allow students to gain working experience. Students also meet biweekly to discuss current IP issues.

The 2 week seminar series provided an amazing crash course on all things IP, covering topics on patents, trademarks, copyright and industrial design, IP prosecution and litigation, as well as IP commercialization. We were also treated to seminars that seemed more science-fiction than law, where we discussed the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), and law in space. The seminar series was given by experienced IP practitioners, academics, company founders and public servants working in government, which provided me with different perspectives of the IP ecosystem. The seminar series not only gave me a working knowledge base of IP, but it was also a horizon-broadening experience that sparked my interest in areas of law that I had not previously heard of nor considered as a career path.

For my 10-week placement, I had the opportunity to join a branch of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).�� CIPO is a special operating agency of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), which delivers IP services in Canada. Specifically, I joined the Policy, International Affairs, and Research Office (PIRO), which provides advice, guidance and representation on policy, regulatory, international and economic issues to CIPO’s Executive Office and senior management, as well as the Deputy Minister and Minister of ISED.

My work was primarily to conduct research. On my very first week, I was invited to propose my own research project and to select from a list of topics that were of interest to PIRO. This was a wonderful opportunity, as I was given the freedom to explore areas of IP that I found particularly interesting. I decided to explore the topic of IP asset valuation, a field that was recognized long ago by the international IP community as an important aspect of the IP field but remains a challenging feat to perform even today. As I started my research, I quickly realized this project required a multidisciplinary team to complete. Luckily for me, PIRO had a highly collaborative environment. My supervisor was extremely supportive of my research efforts and helped me connect with experts from other branches of CIPO so that I could conduct my research. My work would have been far inferior without these fruitful discussions. I was also able to interview a company founder whom I met during the IP Intensive seminar series to gain their perspective on IP valuation. This was my first experience of performing stake-holder outreach and was a valuable experience.

In addition to my research, I also had the opportunity to prepare briefing packages for the executive office and assisted in drafting a CIPO report. These exercises gave me a glimpse into the inner workings of a government office and what it is like to be a public servant.

While working at CIPO, I also had the opportunity to attend many educational seminars that were hosted by ISED’s Intellectual Property Center of Expertise (IPCoE), the Federal Intellectual Property Partnership and CIPO’s Corporate Strategies and Services branch. These seminars provided me with valuable IP knowledge, such as how to approach managing an IP asset. I also learned about the unique challenges that public servants face when interacting with IP, as well as the exciting research conducted by CIPO that directs policy decisions.

In addition to my valuable experience at CIPO, the IP Intensive also gave me the chance to attend two conferences focusing on Disruptive technologies and AI: the 2022 CAN-TECH Law Annual Conference, and the Bracing for Impact: The Future of AI in Society Conference. These full day conferences offered perspectives on leading technology, law and IP issues and an opportunity to connect with industry professionals.

My IP Intensive experience has been wonderful. Not only did I get the chance to perform work in a welcoming and supportive environment that is CIPO, and attend eye opening conferences, but I also made connections and memories that I will treasure as I move forward in my legal career.

The post My IP Intensive Experience: From Seminars to CIPO and Beyond appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Egin Kongoli is an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s IP Intensive program.

When I was first assigned a utility provider as my placement for the Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive, I thought, “What does providing electricity have to do with intellectual property?” As I quickly learned, businesses that haven’t traditionally dealt with IP rights are facing a rising tide of related challenges as they seek to capitalize on new opportunities. Intellectual property directly supports Alectra Utility Corporation’s evolution from a distributor of electricity to a springboard for greater opportunities for their customers. While Alectra’s traditional role as a service provider still makes up most of its business, the provides new incentives to support innovative research and development. My internship at Alectra was spent on, among other things, the ongoing development of an intellectual property strategy to capture more value from the utility’s emerging collaborative business, along with consideration of its institutional business.

Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 requires a significant transformation of Ontario’s energy system. As a utility provider serving over a million Ontarians, Alectra is poised at the forefront of this project. Through the Green Energy & Technology Centre (GRE&T Centre), Alectra cultivates innovation by identifying, evaluating, and accelerating emerging clean-energy solutions. The work is cutting-edge, like 2021’s GridExchange Pilot, a transactive, blockchain-backed energy platform and marketplace. Through GridExchange, customers with energy assets like solar panels, battery storage, or electric vehicles can receive compensation and rewards for managing their energy use, such as . From municipalities to start-ups, many are eager to access utility data so that they might develop other innovative solutions. Proper strategy, governance, processes, policies and contracts are needed to ensure any IP creation resulting from the collaboration and any real upside potential can be shared with Alectra.

IP strategy determines a standard for how rights-based issues will be handled in the collaborative environment. Canadian universities have paved the way in this regard. Like Alectra, these institutions aim to serve the public interest through the fruits of intellectual inquiry by enabling and encouraging research and development. University IP policies vary, but they all grapple with similar legal issues such as disclosure, use, ownership, commercialization, and revenue sharing. As third-party members working with Alectra and the GRE&T Centre receive data alongside meaningful learning and experience, using personal information by third parties will require careful consideration of not just legal obligations but also Alectra’s reputation. Current privacy legislation dictates that corporations must obtain valid consent from the individual to collect, use or disclose their personal information. At the same time, the federal government’s newly proposed Bill C-27, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, weaves a web of exceptions to regulated practices that obfuscates oversight. For example, the CPPA excludes “anonymized data” from its purview, regardless of the ongoing debate on whether data can ever be de-identified without a remaining risk of re-identification. However, the proposed legislation permits the de-identification of data and the use of this material without the requisite knowledge or consent of the customer if the disclosure is made for “a socially beneficial purpose,” including the “protection of the environment.” By way of example, if Alectra or another utility discloses data to develop clean-energy infrastructure or energy-saving services, would it be excluded as a socially beneficial purpose? If a business anonymizes and aggregates its data sets, does this mean such disclosures are excluded entirely from regulatory oversight? Personal information must not be collected or used to influence an individual’s behaviour or decisions, but what if such a purpose is an alleged “socially beneficial” one?

My time at Alectra was illuminating. The work was not only related to intellectual property law but was also challenging and required endless inquiry to understand the nuanced interplay of laws and a business’s interests. From privacy to protecting against misappropriation, data practices demand multiple layers of legal and operational consideration. Whether through an NDA or an employment contract, a business’s dealings must reflect its IP strategy. Collaborative agreements must delineate contributions made by the company and benefits shared back. As , contractual measures must be taken to protect the data, but cannot be so strict as to dissuade collaboration. These challenges, and others unnamed here, offer exciting opportunities for lawyers working in the utility space as intellectual property law continues to fuel innovation.

The post Powering the Future: Insights on Energy Innovation from a Semester at Alectra (IP Intensive Reflection) appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Androu Waheeb is an IP Innovation Clinic Coordinator and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s IP Intensive Program.

CodeX: The Epitome of Legal Innovation

I was incredibly fortunate to have been placed at CodeX, the multidisciplinary legal informatics team at Stanford University. The team connects talented computer scientists with expert lawyers to find technological solutions for pressing access to justice dilemmas. During my rotation, the team was committed to developing a platform that would enable the democratization of insurance contracts. Naturally, many of the conversations centred around exploring technical solutions for technical problems and strategic decision-making.

Starting at the Very Beginning

Despite being someone that prides himself on a level of self-cultivated technical savvy and familiarity, my lack of formal engineering and computer science training became immediately obvious. The technical aspects of artificial intelligence, logic programming, deep learning, and computable contracts eluded me. I was way out of my league, and I knew it. I had much to learn to be able to understand the team’s concerns and become useful.

Every member of the CodeX team offered to schedule a meeting with me to explain their work and teach me everything I needed to understand. I enthusiastically took them up on their offers and am extremely grateful to the whole team for their time and effort. I learned the basics of deep learning and logic programming. Armed with my new knowledge, I attended every technical meeting and immersed myself in the team’s work. When I understood the technology and the predicaments the team faces daily, I came to a fundamental realization. The roots of some of the biggest technical complications were the classical legal conundrums that legal professionals continue to struggle with as well.

Dilemma 1: Precision vs Elasticity

First, computer language is necessarily surgically precise and explicit. Thereby, the utilization of technology is predicated on the ability to translate legal documents into precise rules that the computer can understand and manipulate. For computable contracts, every clause of each contract must be coded using logic programming. However, contract interpretation is an art. It requires the interpreter to grapple with inherent linguistic elasticity and ambiguity that produces opposing but plausible outcomes. This is a problem that lawyers are very familiar with. Courts usually grapple with this by retroactively exploring the contractual language for a juncture at which the reasonable minds of the parties met while operating within the bounds of justice, public policy, established legal doctrines, and statutory law. Simulating this process is a challenging feat.

Dilemma 2: Free Public Access vs Protection of IP

Second, the widespread adoption of technical solutions depends on realizing the delicate balance between enabling free public access and protecting key components of the technology. Free public access alleviates the financial burden of adopting platform-based technical solutions, which accelerates the desired universal implementation and expands the solution’s reach. As the platform accumulates users and contributors, it incrementally compounds utility and becomes an essential industry requirement rather than a simple convenience. Ubiquity, therefore, is not only the intended outcome; it is a necessary step in the solution’s implementation.

On the other hand, solutions that require adoption by the private sector must enable commercialization and protect trade secrets if they are to bring value to the very corporate institutions needed to make them useful. This limits the extent to which the free public access that makes the solution indispensable can be granted. This quandary summarizes the quintessential balancing act that intellectual property law has grappled with since its inception in modern society: how can one design a system that protects enough of an ingenious solution to incentivize innovation through the promise of exclusive commercialization while exposing enough to encourage social progress, adoption, use, and future innovation.

Multi-disciplinary Immersion: A Powerful Tool

While I did not personally solve those issues, I look forward to exploring the solutions that the CodeX team will devise. Instead, my immersion into an extremely talented and capable multidisciplinary team at the world’s most advanced legal and technical institution taught me something else I found foundational. Multidisciplinary teams can be extremely effective in bridging the silos of knowledge and skill created by the specialized educational model of today’s post-secondary institutions. CodeX is a perfect example of the interdisciplinary collaboration that is a necessary prerequisite for the accelerated materialization of the robotic age.

The post The Power of Immersion: My Internship at the Stanford Centre for Legal Informatics appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Mariela Gutierrez Olivares is an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s IP Intensive Program.

The parts of my law school journey I have most enjoyed have been the opportunities for hands-on learning such as Osgoode’s IP Innovation Clinic and mooting experiences. The IP and Technology Intensive stood out to me as a unique opportunity for additional hands-on learning. I am pleased to share that my placement at Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) was a valuable learning opportunity which has made a lasting impact on my career trajectory.

Truthfully before I learned I would be completing my placement at ISC I did not know much about the organization. However, I was immediately intrigued upon learning about ISC’s mission:

Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) works collaboratively with partners to improve access to high quality services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Our vision is to support and empower Indigenous peoples to independently deliver services and address the socio-economic conditions in their communities.

I was excited to see what the ISC’s work is like, given their distinct and obsolete mission. This extraordinary mandate resonated deeply with me and my interest in social justice, however it was not immediately obvious that type of work I might expect to do or witness at ISC.

My placement was on the Innovation Team, under the Partnerships and Innovation Directorate in the Evaluation and Policy Redesign Branch. The , mandates ISC to take an innovative approach to policies and programs with aim of implementing a gradual transfer of services to Indigenous organizations. To this effect, the Partnerships and Innovation Directorate oversees a variety of different projects, including a strategic partnership fund, a results-based innovation network, international collaboration arrangements, efforts to eliminate anti-Indigenous racism, and a variety of other projects with specific Indigenous communities.

While my internship experience was virtual, team members from different regions throughout Canada made me feel welcome. I was invited to join team meetings where I was able to become well acquainted with the team’s ongoing projects. In addition, I was also invited to meet with ISC staff outside of the Directorate, staff in other government departments, and partners at Indigenous organizations. I also received plenty of support as I carried out research on data governance and intellectual property. Though I started my placement with little knowledge about ISC and the services they deliver, I was able to gain a broad understanding of the various projects the team is engaged in and found myself learning a great deal about the complexities of government work in particular as it relates to the delivery of services for Indigenous communities. Although I completed my placement remotely, I felt like a valued member of the team. Everyone at ISC was very generous with their time and willing to help me.

My placement gave me an opportunity to gain exposure to a unique government work setting and a direct look at how policy is enacted to advance department goals. Much of my law school courses have been focused on the theoretical underpinnings of law and how it is developed and interpreted in the courts. Though policy considerations are certainly present in the legal curriculum, we rarely consider what happens to policies as they are enacted and refined over time. This is precisely what I had a chance to witness at ISC. As Canada strives to advance reconciliation with Indigenous communities, departments like ISC have the tall order to delivery critical services and build (or re-build) relationships with Indigenous Peoples in Canada with a view toward transfer of services.

I had an amazing time during my placement with the Innovation Team at Indigenous Services Canada. I was deeply impacted by my experience, as witnessing the dedication of the team and their commitment to the department mission inspired me to consider a career in public service. I firmly believe my work as an intern has helped me strengthen my research, writing, and advocacy skills. My time in the IP and Technology Intensive has enriched my law school journey in a way that I did not imagine possible, and I am deeply grateful for that.

The post Policy Perspective on Reconciliation – My Placement at Indigenous Services Canada appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Applications for all openings will now be due at 5 PM on Friday 16 September 2022. All other requirements remain the same.

For more information about applying to join the IP Innovation Clinic as a Clinic Fellow, click .

For more information about applying to join the IPilogue as an IPilogue Writer, click .

For more information about applying to be a Research Assistant with Prof. D'Agostino and Prof. Vaver, click .

As with before, we thank all interested applicants and will only contact those selected for an interview.

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Prof. Giuseppina D'Agostino is the Founder & Director of IP Osgoode and the IP Innovation Clinic, an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and the Editor-in-Chief of the IPilogue and the Intellectual Property Journal.

IP Osgoode and the IP Innovation Clinic are thrilled to welcome you back on campus for the new school year! After almost 2 full years of completely virtual operations, we look forward to finally seeing our students and colleagues live in person! Here’s a preview of some of the activities you can get involved in over the next 8 months:

“IP Osgoode Speaks Series” is back in person!

Since 2008, we’ve hosted regular IP Osgoode Speaks lectures with guests from industry, academia, and the judiciary (including the Supreme Court of Canada) from Canada and around the world. After over 2 years in lockdown, we are proud to share that the IP Osgoode Speaks Series returned on 31 August 2022, welcoming Dan Bereskin to speak on “Balancing Freedom of Expression with Copyright and Trademark Rights: Art or Science?”

We look forward to hosting Dr. Lior Zemer, Dean of the Harry Radzyner Law School at Reichman University in Israel, in November to discuss “Art and Authorship in Extreme Circumstance: The Case for Nazi Ghettos.” ��

Please stay tuned for more details about ��on our website and by subscribing to our weekly e-Newsletter, the��.��You can also find recordings of our on our website.

IPilogue

Our����is one of Canada’s leading IP Blogs with an enthusiastic international following. To date,��we have published almost 3000 original posts and over 1400 comments.

The number of visitors to our website and our weekly newsletter () readership continue to grow and span the globe. Our diverse����continued to blog throughout the summer and constitute an important part of IP Osgoode’s team and vision to foster diverse views on intellectual property and technology matters. In order to keep abreast of the latest issues in IP and technology in Canada and around the world, and to learn more about IP Osgoode’s events and activities, please to the IPIGRAM��and follow us on��,��, and��.

We are����for this academic year. If you are interested in joining the IPilogue Team, please send your cover letter, CV, law school transcripts, and a writing sample to iposgoode@osgoode.yorku.ca��by��Friday 9 September 2022.

We will also continue to accept submissions on a guest basis.��For more information about submitting articles to the IPilogue, click��.

IP Innovation Clinic

Now in its twelfth year of operation, the IP Innovation Clinic continues to complement Osgoode’s rich history of clinical offerings by providing students with an opportunity to gain hands-on, practical experience while learning about some common early-stage IP and business-related issues facing under-resourced inventors, entrepreneurs, and start-up companies.

To this end, we����our AI-powered��, a free online service offering IP law information to users and further empowering creators with the tools to protect their IP. We look forward to continue to develop the IP Innovation ChatBot by expanding its knowledge base and making it more accessible, particularly to members of communities traditionally underrepresented in the IP innovation ecosystem. In the meantime,��we encourage you to ask our����as many questions as possible. The more questions it receives, the better it becomes at answering them. You can learn more about it by watching the recording of our launch event��.

The����continues to expand our client base and provide our students with a valuable and unique experiential learning opportunity.��We are currently��for the 2022-2023 academic term. If you are interested, please send your completed application to ipinnovationclinic@osgoode.yorku.ca by��Wednesday 7 September 2022.

To stay up to date with Clinic activities, please follow us on , and .

Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Moot & USPTO National Patent Application Drafting Competition

Following from the momentum of our��third-place finish at last year’s Patent Application Drafting Competition, we will soon host tryouts for this year’s competition, as well as the Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Moot. Look out for our emails and social media posts to learn about how you can get involved in either competition.

Our Writing Competitions

Gowling WLG Best Blog in IP Law & Technology Prize

Each year, through the sponsorship of Gowling WLG, four prizes are awarded to full-time Osgoode students. The recipients for the 2021-2022 academic year were����on the IP Osgoode website.��Eligibility for the����is officially open. All submissions by Osgoode JD students between now and the end of the Winter term will be considered for the prize.

Canada’s IP Writing Challenge

IP Osgoode, together with the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC), runs����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 submission deadline is July 1 every year. This year, we received a wide range of entries from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and institutions across Canada. We thank all those who participated in the Writing Challenge. We are grateful to Dan Bereskin, Professor Ikechi Mgbeoji and Justice Roger Hughes for agreeing to judge the articles again this year. Stay tuned, as��we will announce the Challenge winners in late October��and��open our next competition early next year, among various other initiatives.

A community is only as vibrant as its contributors. As we work and live amidst concerns about COVID-19, even while emerging from the lockdowns, we continue to confront complex and challenging debates in intellectual property and related areas of technology.��Please share with us your ideas to enrich our program and to do our part to make a difference during these unprecedented times. Let us know if you would like to get more involved or if you would like to announce any IP & tech-related research projects or activities.

A community is only as strong and vibrant as its members, I welcome your ideas, projects and anything else you would like to see us do at IP Osgoode for more IP and tech fun!

The post Welcome Back to Osgoode! What to Expect from IP Osgoode & the IP Innovation Clinic in the New Year appeared first on IPOsgoode.

IP Innovation Clinic Fellows (3-5 positions)

It is expected that the majority of the work done by students will relate to patent and/or trademark law. The remaining time would be spent working on other IP-related and start-up business related needs as they arise. The students’ work will be supervised by lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Bereskin & Parr LLP, and OWN Innovation and may include:

• Reviewing business transactions involving IP
• Assisting with various steps in the patent prosecution process (i.e.: conducting prior art searches, reviewing patent specifications, etc.)
• Performing freedom-to-operate and clearance searches
• Performing trademark searches
• Reviewing IP Agreements and licensing assistance
• Conducting legal research

Term: September 2022 – April 2023, with a possibility to continue on for the 2023 summer term.

Note: Please note the position is a part-time volunteer position. Students may claim OPIR hours for work done at the IP Innovation Clinic.

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• an interest in IP law, technology and commercialization issues
• responsiveness and a commitment to client service
• attention to detail and ability to write clearly and concisely
• excellent time-management, organizational, and interpersonal skills
• you must be a 1L, 2L, 3L, or LL.M student at Osgoode Hall Law School
• completion of the Legal Values: IP Commercialization Seminar course is not required but would be considered an asset
• completion of the Intellectual Property or Patents course is not required but would be considered an asset

Application Process:

�ٱ𲹻�����Ա�:��Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Please provide the following materials via email to��ipinnovationclinic@osgoode.yorku.ca:

• One-page cover letter (briefly outlining your interests in IP law)
• Copy of your resume and unofficial grades
• A sample of your written work (max. 750 words)

Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

The post CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: IP Innovation Clinic Fellows (2022/23 Academic Year) appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Richard De Almeida is an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow and a 3L JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.

On Monday July 18, I attended the Bereskin & Parr Virtual Open House to learn about practising there and in intellectual property in general. On the panel was Ryan Baker, Director of Recruitment, Partners Wynnie Chan, Reshika Dhir, Ainslie Parsons and Associate Martin Brandsma.

The firm tour was extremely helpful in that they provided me with not only answers to help calibrate my own legal compass, such as what it’s like to work in intellectual property and B&P specifically, but advised me about navigating ���ٳ�� formal recruit process.

1) Legal Compass: What its like to work in IP and B&P

Ms. Dhir opened the tour discussing what precipitated her interest in IP law. She talked about a patent infringement dispute which arose during her work at a semi-conductor company and the rest was history. Ms. Parsons was less story-book-esque where she described how she didn’t see a path she could enjoy going forward after graduate studies in the sciences. She loved IP because it was different, but she could still communicate and combine science in her work. I really connected with this because I too still love science but was always more curious than niche graduate research would allow me to be.

Next the panel discussed a day-in-the-life as an IP professional. Their description fit exactly with what I hoped. I found Ms. Chan the most informative where she described handling upwards of 30 files a day and how every day varies with different sets of tasks.

The panel then discussed what it’s like to work at B&P in particular. Ms. Dhir and Ms. Chan spoke to the firm’s open-door policy and the safe and collaborative environment that facilitates that. Ms. Dhir also mentioned the healthy work-life balance the firm has with its lower-than-average billable targets. Mr. Baker also discussed the firm’s focus on equity and fairness as values that he believes ascends B&P into a worthwhile workplace.

Ms. Parsons testified to the firm’s excellence in career development from her experience starting as a student. Mr. Brandsma however, started at a large firm that didn’t emphasize IP and said the difference in IP skills at B&P was night and day. They discussed the seminars and training programs but also the community of like-minded, curious, and passionate people.

2) Legal Navigation: Steering through the Formal Recruit

The next part of the open house discussed how to navigate the formal recruit process. Ms. Chan addressed the preconception that IP lawyers need a science background, explaining that the knowledge plays a larger role in patents, but a majority of trademarks and copyright groups don’t have STEM degrees. As for demonstrating an interest in IP, they explained that students without STEM backgrounds merely need to establish a genuine interest in IP.

Next, they discussed what qualities B&P values most. After the pre-requisite of a true interest in IP, Ms. Parsons discussed an emphasis on communication skills, attention to detail, enthusiasm, and people who are ultimately interesting and fun to work with. Ms. Dhir mentioned that students who are confident and familiar with their listed accomplishments stand out in interviews. She also recommended doing some preliminary research on your interviewers and the firm and connecting with students who have already worked there to demonstrate true interest.

Mr. Brandsma focused on the more technical aspects of the interview based on his experience joining B&P during the pandemic and through virtual interviews. He emphasized the importance of truly filling the gap that virtual interviews fall short with compared to in-person interviews by taking the extra step to develop a genuine relationship.

Overall, the firm tour was a great experience to provide perspective on my legal journey as it pertains to IP and B&P specifically and provided me with some practical tips and strategies to reaching IP and B&P as destinations in my legal career.

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Junghi Woo is a former IPilogue Content Manager, an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s Directed Reading: IP Innovation Program course.

In 2020, a South Korean television and radio network,����that revealed one family’s journey in recreating their 7-year-old deceased daughter, Na-Yeon, through the technology of virtual reality (“VR”). VIVE Studios, a VR technology studio, used����to create this VR character.����

While this technology may not be as common in Canada, we should nonetheless consider the implications of introducing such innovations, especially when it involves minors. In fact, there exist several legal implications within Intellectual Property law (“IP”), such as the common law principle of personality rights.����In the case of Na-Yeon, her personality rights were used to recreate her VR persona.��

In Ontario, there exists a lack of legislation regarding the protection of both non-celebrity minors’ and adults’ personality rights. This presents a concern with the growing posthumous market and the commercialization of personality rights and potentially, of individuals’ digital assets used to “revive” the dead.��

Such technology is not novel. For example,����through his past text messages with his friends and family members. By using artificial neural networks,��. The result was fairly accurate and allegedly helped Mazureko’s loved ones’ grieving process. Companies such as����already have a patent that could create a digital clone that embodies people’s “mental attributes”.����a New Zealand-based software company, markets “digital humans” for enhanced online customer service.��

With Kanye West’s gift to his ex-wife Kim Kardashian��, and a��” industry derived from the pandemic, the posthumous artificial intelligence market is not too far from our futures. Firms such as����offer online chat bots based on one’s digital footprint to keep the bereaved to “stay in touch” with the deceased.��

Along with significant privacy concerns regarding the collection and use of individuals’ digital assets, the commercialization of such IP brings us additional questions regarding the safety of its target market. Mainly targeting grieving people, it is questionable as to whether companies will avoid exploiting the vulnerability of their emotional states and if they are able to deliver their services and products without risking their customers’ mental health. Those who grieve may seek to reconnect with the deceased and companies can monetize this vulnerability not only through their products, but their targeted advertisements. The possibility of the bereaved becoming attached to these recreations is another danger to consider. Without proactive legislation, we leave not only the deceased unprotected but the bereaved as well.����

The real question is, what would you risk to see your lost one once more?��

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