Sangeetha Punniyamoorthy and Thomas Kurys are lawyers at Dimock Stratton LLP, and both are Osgoode alumni.
The 3rd annual Harold G. Fox Moot took place this past weekend (February 18-19, 2011) at the Federal Court in downtown Toronto. This year’s moot problem dealt with the common law tort of passing off and the issue of functionality in relation to the design of competing chef’s knives.
Teams from eight law schools across Canada competed for the Harold G. Fox Cup: Queen’s University, Osgoode Hall, University of Alberta, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, University of Victoria, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Windsor. The moot kicked-off with the second annual Fox IP Lecture, which was delivered this year by the Right Honourable Lord Justice Robin Jacob of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Lord Justice Jacob discussed “The Common Law of IP” and pondered whether it was time to bury the American Cyanamid test for an interlocutory injunction. The Fox Lecture will be published in the Intellectual Property Journal edited by Professors David Vaver and Giuseppina D’Agostino.
The first of two rounds of preliminary competition was underway shortly after Lord Justice Jacob’s lecture. Once again the Moot featured a wide range of panellists from both the judiciary and the intellectual property bar. After getting their feet wet in the first preliminary round, the competitors enjoyed a reception with members of the judiciary, academia, and the IP Bar. The second round of preliminaries began bright and early on Saturday morning, and the semi-finalists were announced shortly after lunch. The semi finals on Saturday afternoon featured teams from Osgoode Hall, Queens University, the University of Ottawa and the University of Toronto. In the end, the two Toronto schools moved on to the finals. The final panel this year was made up of Lord Justice Jacob, Justice J. Edgar Sexton of the Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Kathryn N. Feldman of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Justice Jacques A. Léger of the Quebec Court of Appeal and Justice Roger T. Hughes of the Federal Court.
The winners were announced at the awards dinner on Saturday night at the University Club where Lord Justice Jacob presented Devin Doyle and Kim Lawton of Osgoode Hall with the Harold G. Fox Cup, as the best moot team. The Gordon F. Henderson Award for the Best Factum was awarded to Susanne Coles and Edwin Mok of the University of Ottawa and Kayla Kwinter of Queen's University was awarded the Don F. Sim Award for Best Oralist. Vanessa Park-Thompson of the University of Toronto was the recipient of the inaugural Dimock Stratton LLP Award, which was given to the best mooter in a non-graduating year. The winner of this Award, along with a team-mate, is invited to represent their law school in the 2012 Oxford International IP Moot in Oxford, England. The winner and team-mate’s accommodation and transportation is arranged and paid for by Dimock Stratton LLP.
This year’s Fox Moot was a success due to all the participants, panellists and sponsors, and the organizers look forward to another successful Moot next year.