IP Osgoode, Osgoode Hall Law School’s Intellectual Property & Technology Law Program, and OCE, a not-for-profit corporation that drives the commercialization of Ontario academic research, recently signed a memorandum of understanding to solidify the program.

Above: From left, Trish Barrow (director of Commercialization & CCR, Ontario Centres of Excellence), Osgoode students Shirley Bai, Rita Gao, Sebastian Talluri, Andrea Dias, Hashim Ghazi and Professor Giuseppina D'Agostino (founder & director, IP Osgoode). Missing from the photo is student Jeremy Loeb.

“Intellectual property law is a key component in Ontario’s and Canada’s innovation agendas,” said Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ’s vice-president research and innovation. “The IP Osgoode/OCE project reflects our expanding research partnerships with industry and community partners and will further stimulate knowledge transfer between academia, government and industry groups pursuing innovative agendas.”

The IP Osgoode/OCE project will be launched as a 12-month pilot program with approximately six Osgoode students assisting OCE-supported companies with numerous IP matters – from patents to trademarks to copyright. The program will provide students with a combination of IP law theory and practical experience, while OCE is better able to support promising new companies, including helping them reduce start-up costs.

“This is a groundbreaking initiative for a law school to have a formal collaboration with a proven innovation driver such as OCE, at this level,” said Osgoode Professor , founder and director of IP Osgoode.

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“These companies are at the early growth stage,” D’Agostino said. “They need help from a very early point without having legal fees and various other costs choke them before they can get up and running. Having our IP students involved with these OCE-supported start-ups while at the law school will minimize the companies’ IP costs because our students will be working pro bono.”

Initially, the students will explore general areas of IP, with a special focus on patent law. The students will then be engaged in a variety of IP activities such as reviewing IP licensing transactions, performing prior art searches, reviewing patent specifications, performing freedom-to-operate and clearance searches, assisting with the preparation and filing of provisional patent applications, and conducting legal research.

To better enable the students, OCE’s CCR will provide $30,000 for the project’s operating budget. OCE will work with IP Osgoode and a clinical supervisor to select the most suitable OCE-supported companies, based on the skills and knowledge of the participating students, the scope of potential projects that may come from a particular company, and other factors that are consistent with the program’s overall goals.

“OCE’s Centre for Commercialization of Research is delighted to be working with IP Osgoode on this initiative,” said Tom Corr, OCE president & CEO. “Starting with a solid IP strategy is essential to the successful commercialization of leading-edge discoveries. The companies we work with have limited resources, but tremendous potential. This partnership with IP Osgoode will solve problems at a crucial time for start-up companies that are poised to create jobs and strengthen Ontario’s economy.”

“For many high-potential start-ups, their IP is their most precious commodity,” said Mario Thomas, senior vice-president, Ontario Centres of Excellence, and managing director, Centre for Commercialization of Research. “IP protection is vital for technology companies to get their products to market, so the value of this legal expertise and guidance provided by IP Osgoode cannot be stressed enough.”

Osgoode Dean also applauded the partnership, describing the IP Osgoode/OCE project as “a robust collaboration that will extend the classroom into the realm of real-world IP issues and benefit both Osgoode IP students and the start-up companies.”

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Have you ever wanted to have dinner with a scientist? Ask questions about Canada’s laser radar on NASA's 2007 Phoenix mission to Mars, the role of human genomes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the consequences of dwindling fossil fuels or perhaps how biochemical pathways affect obesity?

The Royal Canadian Institute (RCI) for the Advancement of Science, Canada's oldest scientific society at 161 years, is hosting a gala dinner featuring 25 scientists, and guests get to choose which one they’d like to sit with.

Five of the scientists are from 91��ɫ, which is a sponsor of the dinner. They are physics Professor Emeritus Allan Carswell, humanities and science & technology studies Professor Bernard Lightman, Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino, anthropology and science & technology studies Professor Natasha Myers, and Canada Research Chair in Ecology & Conservation Biology, Professor Bridget Stutchbury. In addition, Mark Lievonen, president of Sanofi Pasteur Ltd., a 91��ɫ alumnus and member of 91��ɫ's Board of Governors, will also host a table.

Right: Giuseppina D’Agostino

Founder and director of Osgoode's Intellectual Property Law & Technology Program (IP Osgoode), D’Agostino, a recent recipient of the Law Commission of Ontario’s Visiting Scholarship Program, will talk about "Challenges to the Commercialization of Intellectual Property". The commercialization of intellectual property is often said to be indispensable for fostering a vibrant, creative and innovative economy, but many challenges remain before an invention can be brought from the lab into the marketplace. D’Agostino is currently investigating the intellectual property and privacy aspects of the electronic health record in Canada.

Left: Bernard Lightman

Lightman, editor of the history of science journal Isis, will discuss "Who, Exactly, Was Charles Darwin? The Making of a Cultural Icon". Lightman's early work, summed up in his , centred on the birth of a new form of unbelief in the wake of the debates over evolutionary theory. More recently, he has tackled the issue of how science was popularized in the second half of the 19th century in Britain. His current project is a biography of the eminent Victorian physicist John Tyndall.

Right: Allan Carswell

Former president of the Canadian Association of Physicists and vice-president of the Canadian Academy of Science, Carswell founded Optech Inc. in 1974 to develop commercial lidars (laser radar). He and a Canadian team provided a lidar on NASA's 2007 Phoenix mission to Mars as part of a meteorological station, MET, for studies of the Martian atmosphere. After the landing in May 2008, MET provided measurements of outstanding value, including the discovery of snowfall on Mars. An internationally recognized leader in the lidar field, Carswell will present "Canada Goes to Mars".

Left: Bridget Stutchbury

Stutchbury, Canada Research Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology and a field biologist who has studied bird behaviour and conservation for 25 years, has followed Canadian migratory songbirds to their wintering grounds in Latin America to understand the threats they face far away. She is author of , a Governor General’s Literary Award non-fiction finalist, and the forthcoming T. She will discuss "Conservation Biology Studied Through Birds".

Right: Natasha Myers

Myers' research examines the lively visual cultures that thrive in contemporary life science laboratories and classrooms, with an interest in the artistry, craft and creativity of scientific work. She will discuss "Art Meets Science". Myers has been engaged in art-science collaborations for over a decade. Her most recent project was the 2009 Art Meets Science Series at 91��ɫ, a year-long series of events designed to foster a culture of collaboration among 91��ɫ’s artists and scientists.

Left: Mark Lievonen

Lievonen (BBA Spec. Hons. ’79, MBA ’87), a member of the Board of Directors of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, will talk about the Canadian Vaccine Capability: Collaborating for Continued Success.

In addition, ex-91��ɫie Brock Fenton, a biology professor at the University of Western Ontario and former chair of 91��ɫ’s Department of Biology as well as former associate vice-president research, will ask "How do Universities Interact With Society?" He has written several books about bats intended for a general audience, including Just Bats (University of Toronto Press, 1983) and The Bat: Wings in the Night Sky ( Key Porter Press, 1998)).

Right: Brock Fenton

Scientists are chosen from various disciplines and many southern Ontario academic institutions. Each scientist hosts a table of eight. The gala partners are awarded several places, and their guests, as well as individual ticket purchasers, can choose the table of greatest interest to them. After a reception of an hour or so, dinner will start. Each scientist will provide a brief overview of their subject and/or current work and guests are then free to ask any questions or suggest topics they would like the host to discuss. For tables and topics, click here. Following the dinner, the president of the RCI will open a general question-and-answer period at which time any of the participants are free to direct a question to any of the scientists present.

The RCI for the Advancement of Science is a not-for-profit organization founded in Toronto in 1849 by a small group of civil engineers, architects and surveyors and led by Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915) who established the concept of time zones.

The gala will take place Thursday, April 22, from 6 to 9:30pm, in the MaRS Collaboration Centre, 101 College St., Toronto. Tickets are $250. The dinner will help to raise awareness and funds for the RCI's outreach activities, in particular the free public lectures it presents every year in Toronto and Mississauga on a diverse range of topics. The fundraising also goes toward providing scholarships for deserving high school students to attend university.

91��ɫ provides the Webcasting and archiving for all the lectures through the support of University Information Technology and the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. Click to view archived Webcasts of previous lectures. 91��ɫ also supplies many of the speakers. This winter two of the six Toronto were from 91��ɫ.

For more information, visit the Web site or contact 91��ɫ biology Professor Ron Pearlman, a member of the RCI council and the gala organizing committee, at ronp@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy o f YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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