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  the 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.

The post Bereskin & Parr Virtual Open House: Surviving IP Law Practice and Recruitment appeared first on IPOsgoode.

On April 26, 2021, the theme of World IP Day 2021 is “”. Since I founded the IP Innovation Clinic in 2010, the Clinic has helped countless innovators, entrepreneurs, and small businesses to do exactly that. Our students have provided basic legal information to clients who otherwise would not have any access to it. To date, the Clinic has subsidized over $2,000,000CDN of legal fees that would otherwise have been paid by those without access to resources. This past year, the Clinic has expanded its impact through the recently launched , a free legal chatbot which uses a vast database of credible IP information to answer users’ initial IP questions and guide them to the type of legal help they need. This is only the beginning of the ChatBot’s story.

In a critical time of Covid-19 isolation, I aim to ensure that the IP Innovation ChatBot’s content is accessible and attuned to the unique realities of underrepresented communities in Canada’s intellectual property (IP) innovation ecosystem; namely, women and indigenous peoples. Having assisted clients in these underrepresented groups in the IP Innovation Clinic, and through my own research and writing in this area, I have seen first-hand the distinct struggles these groups confront in the traditional IP innovation ecosystem and the distinct challenges they face to bring their innovations to society; from being silenced in their ideation phase to lacking adequate resources and know-how to develop IP strategies attuned to their unique needs and perspectives.

This AI-powered initiative has been launched thanks to the Canadian government’s , and supports its mandate to increase IP awareness and education by making IP information more accessible. These learnings can easily be applied to other areas of the law.

The ChatBot has been realized due to visionary IP Innovation Clinic champions backing our work, Innovation 91��ɫ at 91��ɫ, Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) at the very outset and Bergeron Entrepreneurs Science and Technology (BEST) Program at Lassonde School of Engineering and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) Canada LLP. Indeed, the technical and legal expertise of Partner, Maya Medeiros, and Al Hounsell at NRF, and our Osgoode JD team of students led by Ryan Wong, class of 2021. It is also an honour to work closely with other leaders in the federal government such as the Konstantinos Georgaras, CEO (Interim) at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and Jennifer Miller, Erin Campbell and their teams at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), who understand and work hard to overcome the challenges Canadian innovators face.

I previously uncovered the various challenges that underrepresented communities face in the IP innovation system and how grassroots initiatives, such as IP legal clinics, can assist in and in more recent work to use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to build an IP Innovation ChatBot to make IP law more accessible. Going forward, I plan to expand on this foundational and empirical work to build the IP Innovation Clinic and the ChatBot to make the IP innovation ecosystem more accessible.

Ultimately, in an era of increasing technological disruption and lingering societal inequality and pandemic isolation, I hope to influence future legal education and make our justice system accessible to all Canadians.

Indeed, AI applications, including legal chatbots, use machine learning to make the law more understandable, manageable, useful, accessible, predictable, and efficient. Legal chatbots increase access to justice through their wider reach and lower costs. Many underrepresented communities receive either inadequate or no legal help at all. Technology currently cannot provide complex legal advice, but AI-powered online legal services can cost-effectively deliver accessible, basic legal help. Some, like our IP Innovation ChatBot, do so for free. Chatbots can thus democratize access to basic legal services for the underserved, and therefore deserve greater study and adoption.

Since its January 29, 2021 launch, the IP Innovation ChatBot has been a magnet for public use. Several members of the legal community have already inquired to learn how to emulate it. With the information from these analyses, I plan to design and build an enhanced, interactive, dynamic, and accessible portal powered by next-generation artificial intelligence operating on big data curated by our pioneering IP Innovation ChatBot.

The ChatBot will remain a free, sophisticated, and smart online tool, driven by AI and designed to cater to underrepresented and disenfranchised innovators. It will soon house key IP resources and information, leading updates, and links to Canadian and international government IP resources. The ChatBot’s scaled-up national platform will analyse its amassed archive of data and identify common IP knowledge translation problems to devise and anticipate solutions. Adapted for the COVID-19 era and beyond, the ChatBot will support the next generation of lawyers, educate and stimulate innovation from underrepresented communities, provide start-up entrepreneurs with access to IP resources, and be the public’s go-to tool for independent and impartial IP knowledge.

Prof Pina D’Agostino is Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the IPilogue, the IP Innovation Clinic, and officially since January 2021 the recently launched IP Innovation Clinic ChatBot.

The post Celebrating World IP Day: What comes next for the IP Innovation ChatBot? appeared first on IPOsgoode.