Aaron Dishy 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.

In completion of Osgoode Hall’s Intellectual Property & Technology Law Intensive Program (), this semester I participated in a ten week placement with the of Patrimoine canadien - Canadian Heritage (). This short reflection will emphasize the value of this experiential opportunity and help anyone interested in an IP Intensive placement with PCH to get a sense of what to expect.

PCH: the whip-smart analysts supporting Canada's copyright framework

PCH is a federal department that supports cultural production in Canada. It has a diverse portfolio that considers subjects like arts markets in Canada, author and publisher rights, GLAM institutions, and the preservation of our official languages.

The Copyright Policy Branch is made up of legal and policy analysts responsible for ensuring that our copyright framework supports creativity, innovation, and access. To fulfill this mandate, the branch conducts dynamic research and consultation. They collaborate with government departments, artists, authors, equity-deserving groups as well as the public.

Beyond a new appreciation for acronyms, a placement with any PCH team is sure to provide you with a chance to view processes in action. This may be of great interest to those of you looking to practice law at the intersections of art, authorship, and technology.   

The IP Intensive: a critical resource for young IP professionals in Canada

The IP Intensive is different from other courses. It is a bilateral effort that involves our law school and government stakeholders interested in safeguarding IP innovation in Canada. The idea is simple. Law students are provided with educational opportunities in sectors that engage IP. Those students then increase access to IP legal expertise and amplify public awareness of IP issues.

In this way, the IP Intensive is a rare opportunity. Students are entrusted with the valuable knowledge and networks required to succeed, but also provided with an opportunity to apply those developing legal skills. It is a meaningful academic capstone for any student pursuing IP law in Canada.

Key Recommendation: Bring Your Whole Self to the Job

The key recommendation I have for a student entering a legal internship at PCH is that you bring your whole self to the position. Departments like PCH make space for individual perspectives and research interests. If those interests include the realities of a specific arts market or equity-deserving group, do not hesitate to share your valuable insights.

In my case, I found PCH very accommodating, in allowing me to incorporate my past professional experience as an archivist within some of the legal research I pursued.

It led me to develop (what I believe is) a specialized legal response to the question at hand.

Conclusion

Osgoode Hall’s IP Intensive is an invaluable summative experience for law students interested in IP in Canada. Its focus on experiential learning is complimented by enriching placements at departments like PCH.

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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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Given SOCAN’s nature, I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the practical aspects of copyright policy, especially in the neighbouring rights area of tariffing licensees and users for the right to perform and broadcast the music of SOCAN members publicly. What interested me the most about collective management of copyright was the sheer number of people who were affected by the tariffs that SOCAN applies for, and has approved by .  Seeing the effect of a SOCAN tariff play out in the licensing and royalty-collection process helped cement some of the core concepts of copyright that I learned in copyright theory class.  I also had the chance to chat with legal counsels about the effects of the SCC’s decisions, which SOCAN was heavily involved in.  In doing so, I gained a better understanding of the interactions between law and policy, and how these interactions translated into practice. My supervisors also ensured I had a well-rounded experience by giving me the opportunity to work on internal policies, as well provide research support on litigation files.

Similar to my predecessor, Joshua Dallmann, who interned at SOCAN in the fall of 2011 (read his blog ), I was very nervous during the first two days of the internship because it was so odd being away from the cocoon of Osgoode. That changed quickly however, because my supervisors were excellent, wise and friendly teachers who put me at ease immediately. I am happy to say that I can look back on the experience and find something I have learnt from every single person in the SOCAN legal department, leaving me so much the richer in knowledge. My supervisors also spent considerable time and energy in educating me about law as a profession - giving me tips and advice not just on practicing the law, but rather, on being a lawyer. The experience has I think, helped me grow up in a way that only practical, real world legal experience can, and has left me eager to graduate in May 2013 and return to the practice of law.

And then of course, there were the boxes of free CDs, the lunchtime concerts and the much-anticipated SOCAN Awards, all of which, I think it will suffice to say, showed me the effects of the work I was doing every day, making the endless poring over legalese completely worth it and fabulously fun.

SOCAN I say I had a great time last semester? That would be a definite, resounding “Yes!”

Mekhala Chaubal is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was enrolled in Osgoode’s .  As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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Overlooking the Harbourfront in downtown Toronto, I had the chance to work closely in May 2009 with in-house legal counsel at Yahoo! Canada - one of the largest internet companies with a global reach in distributing websites and online services.

Yahoo! Canada keeps the dot-com fantasy alive as in-house lawyers and other staff members are permitted to wear jeans on a Monday (or everyday for that matter). Free food, social events, an open concept kitchen and a well-used foosball table were readily available to keep the work environment casual, efficient, young, modern and just fun - especially to a large office of tech savvy Generation Y individuals, such as yours-truly, who prove that mixing a relaxed atmosphere with serious legal research is entirely possible.

On that note, I had the opportunity to research the leading edge of internet law with my cup of tea, fresh fruit and some readily available candy from one of the boardrooms. Researching legal case law and legislation on topics of defamation, privacy, human rights and language rights for a major international media company was a large task requiring sustenance. With the wide global reach of internet companies and its services, cloudy areas in the law remain unresolved, including defamation, issues with user-generated content, cross-border business compliance for a product and aggregated content from outside sources that appear online globally from an American company.

Especially interesting, for me, was a chance to apply my prior journalism background to collect, interpret and create a computer presentation of the latest precedents pertaining to internet-related issues.  I used these skills, and those from law school, to translate these findings for the editorial and legal team who risk facing these issues in their daily business activities:

First, I taught the editorial team (a group of creative, not legal types) how to recognize legal issues when writing headlines and publishing blogs or aggregated content: Who is targeted?  Whose jurisdiction is relevant when the website server, internet user and complainant reside in different countries? What is considered online "publication"? Is hyperlinking considered publication? What are particular risks for bloggers who are being sued now more than ever?

Next, I discovered for the legal team a comparative perspective on the newest developments in internet law. There are some rather harsh precedents being set in the UK, US and Australia that have serious implications for internet companies as jurisdictions become muddier, liability for posting a user's alleged defamatory hate speech may have human rights considerations, infinite publication can occur with online websites or blogs and so forth.

Unfortunately, Canada still lags behind in trying to establish precedents in this nebulous area of law. While a number of internet cases have arrived in Canadian courts, they were more likely to follow decisions in the UK and Australia, rather than American decisions that tend to deviate from Commonwealth jurisdictions. There still remains room for Canada to develop its own body of internet laws and regulation. And this void made it challenging to find out precisely where an internet company is susceptible to legal risks.

So, I built a chart starting with the basics. I compared and contrasted how defamation cases are dealt with in the state of California as opposed to the province of Ontario. This also included looking at the California Civil Code and the wealth of freedom of speech and freedom of press protections that American courts offer, including the right to defame public individuals - a right that does not exist in Canada because of a very low threshold for defamation which is a standard applied equally to public and private individuals.

Perhaps the toughest lesson was researching and authoring a legal memo to answer a real, applicable legal question. The exercise was a practical lesson in how to write a legal memo for in-house corporate counsels who juggle objectives for both legal and business development departments.

I also learned about the challenges with drafting a legal disclaimer for online content. It was challenging, because sometimes a single line of text needs to cover a large number of legal issues that could materialize offline from advice provided online. Again, the online aspect was a complication.

This was a practical legal experience that allowed me to research an area of law that is both fascinating and controversial. Delving into online and offline materials in order to find cutting-edge legal developments were good exercises in resourcefulness. I especially enjoyed having the opportunity to communicate and teach legal ideas to non-legal departments.

Overall, I have to admit that internet law needs to catch-up to today's exponential growth of online technology and its multitude of uses - which is one of many discussions with an in-house corporate counsel that sticks out in my mind. It also didn't hurt to have lunches by the waterfront while pondering these tough legal questions!

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