Androu Waheeb is 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.

Gone are the days when businesses were valued by their ability to market tangible goods. and reported that intangible assets (IP and data) are crucial to wealth creation and represent the “world’s most valuable business and national security assets.” In 2019, they accounted for 91% of the S&P500’s value. Canada has struggled to meaningfully partake in this intangible economy.

Canada’s patent portfolio is incommensurate with its enviable workforce and publicly funded research. Domestically, Canadian patent filings decreased by 3% annually and 7% in the last ten years. Non-resident filings swelled by 1% and 4%, respectively. In 2019, Canadians contributed 12% of the patents filed in Canada, whereas Americans accounted for half. Contrarily, reports that Americans owned 60% of patents filed in the USA.

Internationally, Canadian patent filings decreased after 2012, stagnated after 2014, and are geographically clustered. In 2018, 2/3 of Canadian international applications were filed in the USA – a meagre 2% of applications filed there.

Canada’s struggle to protect ideas has dire economic consequences. As Canada’s IP footprint diminishes, Canadian corporate operations face increasingly onerous restrictions, with portfolios too anemic to leverage. Consequentially, our GDP per capita has declined by 3% since 2010 and job quality by 15% since the 1980s. New jobs generate 2/3 of the income they did in the 1980s.

and blamed this on deficiencies in IP awareness, access, resources, expertise, capacity, laws, and funding. Neither report performed competent modelling or statistical analysis, which led to inadequate recommendations. To implement those recommendations, Canada developed the ; Ontario established the and .

Meanwhile, Peter Nicholson of the blamed Canada’s inability to foster and retain innovative corporations. The technology sector, a driver for innovation, contributes only 5% of the . Conversely, the 75 technology corporations in the constitute 1/3 of the index. Without innovative corporations to develop IP, Canada will never amass the portfolio it deserves. Public funds and talent earmarked for innovation will benefit other economies to the detriment of our own, cementing Canada as an innovation farm for hire.

Innovation emigrates from Canada because of what calls its “buy versus make” economic structure which results in passive posturing and ambivalence about market dominance in Canadian C-suites. Canada’s refusal to acclimate to new global economic realities disincentivizes local innovation independently of the patent system, and the “trend of investment in innovation is not encouraging.”

Canadian innovations’ short-lived victories exemplify this. and revolutionized telecommunications, yet their failure to continue innovating led to their demise. Canada’s abandonment of the shuttered .

Canada must foster a fertile corporate environment and broad innovation incentive structures to fend off the pending economic degradation. All policy instruments must be recruited, including taxation, trade, and regulation. Unfortunately, the current strategy of developing IP awareness, access, resources, and law alone will not suffice.

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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.

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Tianchu Gao is an IPilogue Writer and a 1L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Rising to the challenges and opportunities posed by the disruptive technology of artificial intelligence, 91��ɫ’s Artificial Intelligence and Society Task Force leveraged collegial expertise from a wide range of disciplines to explore the possibility of research, development, and innovation of artificial intelligence and its impacts on humanity and society. The Task Force, Co-Chaired by Prof. Pina D’Agostino and Prof. James Elder, hosted a virtual symposium “” on Nov. 16. The summarizes current AI research, teaching, and learning activities at 91��ɫ and offers advice on further expansion of AI-related initiatives in the near future. After welcoming remarks from 91��ɫ’s President & Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton, VPRI Amir Asif, and Mayor Frank Scarpitti of Markham, the symposium featured a keynote speech by , Head of JP Morgan Chase AI Research and Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. It was followed by a panel discussion led by Prof. D’Agostino and Prof. Elder. The panel featured Dr. Veloso, Neetika Sathe (Vice President, Alectra’s GRE&T Centre), James Goel (Director of Engineering Technical Standards, Qualcomm) and Androu Waheeb (JD Candidate 2023, Osgoode Hall Law School). The livestream of the complete symposium is now available on .

Artificial intelligence is “.” Professor Veloso began her speech by tracing the origin of AI to a ten-man workshop that lasted two months at Dartmouth College in 1956. The workshop proceeded based on the conjecture that The workshop’s goal to simulate human perception and cognition on machines continues to challenge scientists today. Despite the revolutionary breakthroughs in the past decades, artificial intelligence is still a young science that has a long journey to advance ahead.

Professor Veloso shared in the speech a few projects she and her team have developed for JP Morgan Chase when she worked as the head of its AI Research department since 2018. One example is the use of image-based decision making and prediction in stock market analysis. Machines have learned to recognize and classify objects; we see the implementation of this technology in self-driving cars, as the car needs to “see” the environment—identify roads, cars, and pedestrians—to navigate in the traffic safely. Similarly, this technology is used to analyze the stock market as pure images. The researchers labeled the images with “buy” and “no buy” decisions made by humans from historical data, and they can use visual signals to predict transactions in the stock market with 95% accuracy.

Other important tasks that AI can tackle for the financial market include the generation of synthetic data for development and exploration. Synthetic data is easier to access and process than real data. It allows banks to explore the impacts of the decisions they made and develop new approaches to problems like fraud and money laundering. Professor Veloso’s team is also working on the automated standardization of financial data represented in different formats. It is an AI-driven task because the computer program needs to recognize visual and semantic cues in order to understand the meaning of a document and convert it into the standard form. These are a few examples of the various tasks that AI can accomplish and continuously refine for the financial market and beyond.

The challenges AI poses for us do not concern technology alone. As panelist James Goel pointed out, the tremendous investments (nearly a trillion dollars) that AI-related markets will attract in the next five to ten years will generate transformative impacts on society at large. The question remains: what could academia and government policy do in response to this social challenge?

91��ɫ is taking the initiative to foster an interdisciplinary approach to explore AI as a key area of accelerated research and its social implications. The report by the Task Force is a first step of the journey; it studies the existing AI terrain in 91��ɫ in terms of research, teaching, and learning activities and offers guidance on how to grow AI initiatives in the university. 91��ɫ’s new Markham campus will further provide greater resources for AI-related research and innovation. Substantial activities suggest that 91��ɫ has a great potential to be a great center of teaching and research in AI.

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Androu Waheeb is one of our IP Innovation Clinic Coordinators and a 2L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. As part of the IP Innovation Clinic’s involvement in the inaugural year of Mitacs’ Business Strategy Internship program, Androu completed an internship at InteraXon Inc. under the direct supervision of Naseem Bawa. As Principal Investigator, Prof. Pina D’Agostino secured three $10,000 grants from Mitacs, one of which was used to fund this internship.

This summer, I interned with the General Counsel of a start-up technology company that owns an extensive intellectual property portfolio. As I reflect on my time there, I cannot help but appreciate how beneficial this summer will prove to be for my legal career. Through this internship, I experienced transactional law broadly and practically, learned from an extremely skilled and knowledgeable lawyer, and built long lasting friendships. Most importantly, I learned how to learn during my summer law jobs by optimizing the proportion of the types of tasks I take on to maximize my educational experience at internships while being productive and effective at the workplace.

A significant portion of my tasks involved completing work products and submitting them to my supervising lawyer for review. After submitting my work products, my supervisor revised them with me and explained any changes or concepts she felt would be beneficial to me. These types of tasks were an excellent way for me to “learn by doing” and kept me constantly engaged with new and exciting challenges. By putting things into practice, I both expanded upon my understanding and solidified my grasp on many legal skills and concepts. Tasks I completed in this way included preparing intellectual property searches, producing memos exploring legal issues, redlining contracts, updating privacy policies, and drafting IP claims.

In addition to submitting work products, I also worked alongside my supervisor or under her direct supervision at times. During these meetings, I learned by direct collaboration, observation, or supervision. By observing or being observed, I benefited by critically engaging with the task and being instantly corrected. In this way, I conducted training sessions, helped update the privacy policy, and assisted with contract drafting, review, and negotiation.

My experience has shown me the immeasurable value of modelling my future summer internships in a way that provides a mixture of creating work products for revision, performing under direct supervision, and observing in descending proportions respectively. This combination would allow me to learn by doing, practice what I learn theoretically, and solidify new concepts.

The post Learning How to Learn: My 1L Summer Internship Experience with InteraXon Inc. through the Mitacs Business Strategy Internship Program appeared first on IPOsgoode.

Top Row: Madelaine Lynch, Richard Du, Androu Waheeb Bottom Row: Nikita Munjal, Sarah Raja, Tiffany Wang

IP Osgoode is pleased to announce the new team of student editors for the Intellectual Property Journal (IPJ). Returning this year are Madelaine Lynch and Nikita Munjal. New student editors are Richard Du, Sarah Raja, Androu Waheeb, and Tiffany Wang.

The IPJ is Canada’s leading peer-reviewed journal with a focus on IP law related areas such as patents, trademarks, copyright, designs, trade secrets and competitive torts. Leading the IPJ’s editorial team is Editor-in-Chief, Pina D’Agostino, Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and IP Osgoode’s founder and director; Deputy Editor Dr. Aviv Gaon, Assistant Professor at IDC Herzliya; and Senior Editor Ryan Wong.

The IPJ’s editorial board consists of Prof. David Vaver, Hon. Justice Roger T. Hughes, Daniel Bereskin, Prof. Ikechi Mgbeoji, and Hon. Justice Marshall Rothstein. Prof. Bita Amani and Prof. Saptarishi Bandopadhyay are the book review editors.

The IPJ editorial team wishes to thank Prof. David Vaver, IPJ’s founder, for his mentorship and unrelenting support.  The IPJ’s continued success is made possible by the contributions from its panel of expert reviewers. 

IPJ accepts article submissions on an ongoing basis. If you’re interested in submitting an article to the IPJ, please email us at ipjsubmissions@gmail.com.

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Top Row: John Heburn (CEO, Mitacs), Androu Waheeb (IP Innovation Clinic Fellow), Naseem Bawa (General Counsel, InteraXon Inc. Bottom Row: The Honourable Doug Downey (Minister of the Attorney General of Ontario), Prof Pina D'Agostino (Founder & Director of IP Osgoode), The Honourable Ross Romano (Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities)

Yesterday, the Government of Ontario formally announced their funding of thousands of student internships through Mitacs. The announcement was made during a press conference held by the Honourable Ross Romano, Minister of Colleges and Universities, and featured the Honourable Doug Downey, Attorney General of Ontario, and John Hepburn, CEO of Mitacs. As Principal Investigator of 3 projects in the inaugural year of Mitacs' Business Strategy Internship (BSI) Program, Prof Pina D’Agostino was also invited to be part of the festivities, along with Naseem Bawa, General Counsel for InteraXon Inc., and Androu Waheeb, 1L IP Innovation Clinic Fellow who will complete a BSI at InteraXon this summer.

Minister Romano announced that the Government has granted $39.5 million to Mitacs to fund internships that give students, post-doctoral researchers, and businesses more hands-on, real world experience in the field of their choice. Of the hundreds of internships offered across the country, roughly 100 are in their intellectual property stream.

Ministers Romano and Downey repeatedly stressed the importance of investing in Ontario IP rightsholders and empowering SMEs to take advantage of the intangible economy. In particular, Minister Romano pointed out that foreign entities take advantage of Ontario’s IP resources which remain inaccessible for local innovators. As such, this internship is not only an important investment for potential rightsholders, but also for students who will be business-owners commercializing IP and lawyers protecting their rights.

Mitacs CEO John Hepburn stressed the importance of this new collaboration in helping businesses to succeed at every stage of their journey. In the context of Mitacs’ goal of promoting growth and innovation in Canada, Mr. Hepburn introduced the goal of the BSI program: helping SMEs to address specific needs in order to pivot their businesses in response to the pandemic. In particular, because IP literacy is crucial in the early stages of a business, many student interns will offer valuable IP insight (with academic supervision) to help SMEs develop IP strategy in the initial stages of their business.

Prof D’Agostino spoke for the huge impact that this program will have on the students involved and the experience that it offers for them. After a quick but forceful plug for IP Innovation Clinic’s work in supporting IP strategy for SMEs to date, she highlighted our students’ growing need for employment opportunities like this. The combination of education with intention and work with grassroots organizations in turn empowers the Canadian economy.

Naseem Bawa briefly spoke about InteraXon Inc’s strategic IP investments protecting a wide range of their innovations, and the importance of protecting IP for small businesses. Businesses, according to Naseem, need a layered approach to IP that goes beyond registering it: they need support to enhance, protect, and strategically enforce their IP rights. This takes time and resources, but is critical for the future of both Canada and its companies, further stressing the impact of programs like this. Androu Waheeb rounded out the speakers, expressing his sincere gratitude for this opportunity and the ways in which it will prepare him to follow his dream of becoming an IP lawyer.

We would like to thank the Government of Ontario and Mitacs for supporting this program and our incredible students, whom we wish the best of luck in their internships!

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Mitacs designed the BSI program for students to find employment this summer and to help participating partner organizations to restore or modify their business operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first year that Mitacs will run this program. Our students will be able to further their legal knowledge beyond the classroom through practical work on real world projects.

Here is some more information about each project:

3D Bridge Patenting and Commercialization Research

has developed a secure digital medication platform through which health practitioners and other authorized care providers can connect with patients remotely. The device will help to ensure that the medication is properly administered to patients, specifically the elderly, patients with comorbidities, and those who take addictive or high-cost medication. Krystel Ametepeh, 1L student and IP Innovation Clinic Fellow, will work under the supervision of Karima Bawa, CEO and in-house lawyer of 3D Bridge, to provide legal research services in intellectual property, health and privacy law and to address the legal requirements associated with commercialization amidst this product’s pre-commercial rollout.

Innovative Educational and Marketing Tools for Prospective IP Rights Owners (Bereskin & Parr)

(B&P) has struggled to market their services and educate clients without their usual in-person events. With funding from Mitacs, B&P will hire Bonnie Hassanzadeh, 2L student and IP Innovation Clinic Fellow, to create educational and marketing tools for various purposes, including training for new staff and educating prospective and existing clients. Under the supervision of B&P Partner Reshika Dhir, Bonnie will also research marketing strategies about tailoring these materials to various clientele and determine the most effective media to convey the relevant information. Some of these materials will be available for use by our IP Innovation Clinic.

Interaxon Scaling Project

is a Toronto-based company that helps customers to build rewarding meditation and sleep practices to lead healthier and happier lives. As the COVID-19 pandemic has increased their need to address mental health concerns, Interaxon is looking to increase the commercialization of its products and services. The funding will allow Androu Waheeb, 1L student and IP Innovation Clinic Fellow, to work alongside Naseem Bawa, General Counsel at Interaxon, in developing licensing arrangements for the company’s relevant IP and seeking FDA approval to make Interaxon’s devices more accessible to users.

We are very grateful to Mitacs for approving IP Osgoode's proposals in this inaugural year of their Business Strategy Internship program. We would also like to thank our supervisors at 3D Bridge, Bereskin & Parr, and Interaxon for working hard on such short notice to make space for our students and put our proposals together. We look forward to seeing how our students grow and what they accomplish with our partner organizations.

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