Samantha Schreiber is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School
Kicking off a “year filled with all things intellectual property,” IP Osgoode and the IP Club held a Meet & Greet, on Tuesday, September 28, 2010. Armed with refreshments and decadent treats, attendees caught up with old friends and chatted with new ones, learning about the Program’s ambitious plans for the year.
“I wish we had something like this when I was a student at Osgoode. It really is a dream come true,” exclaimed Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino, the Program’s Founder and Director, encouraging attendees to get involved.
The Intellectual Property & Technology Program has certainly blossomed since its inception two years ago, and Tuesday’s large crowd was testimony to that. Professor D’Agostino welcomed returning Professor David Vaver, who had served as an Emeritus Fellow of St. Peter’s College at Oxford and Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre. Fortunately for Osgoode students, he is here teaching a pair of innovative legal reform seminars this semester.
Copies of The Common Law of Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of David Vaver, a volume which Prof. D’Agostino edited alongside Catherine Ng and Lionel Bentley, circulated amongst the event’s attendees—most of whom did not have enough air miles to make the official release at Prof. Vaver’s old haunts at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, on September 10th.
The gathering also honoured Rex Shoyama, who served as the Program’s Founding Assistant Director. He was visibly touched when given a commemorative plaque thanking him for his contributions. The crowd was also introduced to incoming Assistant Director Reuven Ashtar, and the new team of IPilogue Editors (the first online review of its kind, IPilogue features thoughtful intellectual property and technology law commentary by its student editors as well as scholars and other experts from around the world.)
Professor D’Agostino also formally announced the highly-anticipated Intellectual Property and Technology Intensive Program, which is scheduled to commence in September 2011. Student participants will gain hands-on experience, undertaking an 11-week internship (with members of the judiciary, government, industry or other IP-oriented organizations), and develop their theoretical foundations, through a series of seminars, research papers, discussion sessions, and IPilogue exercises.
A host of future IP Osgoode events were announced. This month, on October 12th, Professor D’Agostino will be speaking on her latest book, Copyrights, Contracts, Creators – New Media, New Rules. Then, on the 28th, Professor Graham Dutfield will fly in from the University of Leeds to give a lecture entitled, “Patents on Steroids: What Hormones Tell Us About the Evolution of Patent Law.”
The Meet & Greet was the kind of event IP Osgoode is known for—stimulating and edifying. Cheers to many more!