IP Osgoode is pleased to announce the award of the IP Osgoode David Vaver Medal for Excellence in IP to Ryan Wong.
IP Osgoode founded this special medal, presented yearly during Osgoode convocation to mark Prof. David Vaver’s induction into the Order of Canada for his leadership in intellectual property as “a scholar and mentor”.
The medal, befitting of Prof. Vaver’s influence on intellectual property law, is an original piece of artwork created by Toronto-based artist, Aries Cheung. IP Osgoode awards the medal yearly to an Osgoode student in the graduating class who merits special recognition for outstanding achievements in the area of intellectual property law. Importantly, the student’s achievements extend beyond academic excellence, and can include significant contributions to research in intellectual property and related areas or exceptional commitment and enthusiasm through their participation in intellectual property-related extra-curricular activities.
Over the past 3 years, Ryan Wong has been a star student. He has been actively involved in all of IP Osgoode’s programs. He served as an IP Innovation Clinic Fellow before being hired as a Clinic Co-ordinator. He has also worked as a Research Assistant to Prof D’Agostino for the past 2 years and dedicated many hours to building the IP Innovation ChatBot with our team from Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. In this past year’s IP Intensive course, he received glowing feedback both for his final paper and for his work with ISED Canada’s Performance and Partnerships division, who hired him back to work part time for ISED as a Junior Policy Analyst while completing his 3L year.
Ryan has also regularly submitted articles to the IPilogue as a Guest Writer. His articles included “Tesla’s Patent Pledge: An altruistic act or a stroke of marketing genius?”, “How much does a patent cost? And why”, “Canada’s IP Strategy: An Encouraging First Step” (for the IP Intensive Course), “Experiencing IP at the National Level (IP Intensive Reflection)”, and “Is Red the New Blue? Will IBM’s Patent Strategy shift under new leadership?”. For this last piece, Ryan was awarded the Gowling WLG Prize for Best Blog for the Winter 2020 term. And while he has completed law school, Ryan continues to help improve the ChatBot and work as Senior Editor for the Intellectual Property Journal.
There is no one more deserving of this medal epitomizing the true values of the IP Osgoode David Vaver Medal for Excellence in Intellectual Property Law. Congratulations to Ryan and wishing him every success in his career in IP!