Osgoode’s Oxford International Intellectual Property Moot team recently met with Madam Justice Rosalie Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada on February 22, 2017. During the meeting, Madam Justice Abella (named Global Jurist of the Year) offered the team a once in a lifetime experience to present their oral arguments to her from the Supreme Court podium and was very generous in her comments and feedback to the team.
The moot is held annually at the University of Oxford and is organized by the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre. Osgoode’s team qualified for the oral rounds for the third consecutive year. The 2017 moot problem concerns a fictitious case, Whispering Gums Winery v Loddon River Vineyards, between two alcohol manufacturers from a fictitious country named "Erehwon". The case raises several novel IP issues. Whispering Gums owns a patent on a bottle that enhances the effervescence of sparkling wines and sells a brand of local sparkling wine called “Wizard’s Wizz Erewine” that is contained in their patented bottle. The dispute is over Loddon River's use of the mark "Erewine" for two of its products, a sweet apple cider and a non-alcoholic elderflower flavoured drink. Whispering Gums is accusing Loddon River of patent infringement and extended passing off of “Erewine”, while Loddon River argues that Whispering Gum's patent is invalid on the grounds that it contravenes public policy or morality.
Osgoode’s team is mentored by IP Osgoode's Prof. David Vaver and Aviv Gaon, a PhD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. They are coached by leading IP lawyers, Stephen Selznick and Stephen Henderson from Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, and Jennifer R. Davidson, an Osgoode graduate and articling student at Deeth Williams Wall LLP.
The team is also enthusiastically looking forward to their upcoming meetings with IP Osgoode advisory board members, the Hon. Roger T. Hughes, former justice of the Federal Court of Canada, and the Hon. Marshall Rothstein, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
(Pictured, from left: Colin Lyon, Madam Justice Abella, Aviv Gaon and Jordan Fine)
IP Osgoode’s founder & director, Prof. Pina D’Agostino said “I am very proud of the accomplishment of the IP Osgoode team. In the past three years we have managed to secure our place among the leading schools in the field of IP.”