This semester, I had the opportunity to participate in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property (IP) and Technology Law Intensive Program. The program involves a 10-week placement as a legal intern to gain real-world experience in IP law. I had the opportunity to be placed at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). CIPO is a special operating agency of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and is responsible for the administration of intellectual property in Canada.

As a student, I worked with the Policy, International Affairs, and Research Office (PIRO), which is part of the Corporate Strategies and Services Branch (CSS) at CIPO. PIRO provides advice and guidance on policy, regulatory, international, and economic issues to CIPO’s Executive Office and the Deputy Minister and Minister of ISED. PIRO is divided into three teams: Policy and Regulatory Affairs Office (PRAO), International Relations Office (IRO) and the Economic Research and Strategic Analysis Unit. If you didn’t already notice – yes, the federal government has an affinity for acronyms; I learned this on day one of my placement!

My main role was to conduct research to support the PIRO team. I researched intellectual property trends in free trade agreements and identified areas where negotiations are focused. While my main focus was on trade agreements which Canada is party to – including Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) – I also learned about the negotiations and IP standards set in other regions of the world by other agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the recent African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

My research was also related to meetings that I attended throughout the semester, where I was not only exposed to various areas in international intellectual property law but also to issues the Canadian government is facing regarding implementation of recent trade agreements. For example, I had the opportunity to learn about the process CIPO is taking to implement patent term adjustment obligations as required under Article 20.90 of the CUSMA. It was fascinating to sit-in on discussions of the most current issues that the office is facing as well as being introduced to topics that would never be discussed in the classroom.

I further had the opportunity to attend various meetings on behalf of CIPO’s PIRO team. This includes those held by the Intellectual Property Centre of Expertise (IPCE), an organization established as part of Canada’s national IP strategy in order to provide IP advice and educational support across the federal government. Discussions included considerations that need to be taken when conducting research and the role of federal servants in federal research as dictated by the Public Servants Inventions Act (PSIA). Not
only was this an opportunity to learn about a career of IP in the public sector, but I was also given hands-on experience on how to create effective memoranda when communicating information to the chief executive officer – something that is done regularly as a CIPO analyst.

Working as a student at CIPO has been an incomparable experience. Not only was the work unique, but it was a great skill-building challenge to work independently in areas where I am inexperienced – especially in the remote environment. I want to thank my supervisors, Shawn Tippins and Zorn Pink, who provided me with numerous opportunities to engage with the department. In addition to what I learned from the work, I have gained valuable mentors and lasting relationships. Although I wasn’t able to meet them in person, the team provided a warm and welcoming environment where I felt comfortable asking questions and participating in discussions. I look forward to applying the skills I’ve learned into my career and hope future students will take advantage of this opportunity as well.

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Ashley Moniz is the Managing Editor of the IPilogue and the Assistant Director of IP Osgoode.

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On October 15, 2008, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, IP Osgoode was officially launched. Known as Osgoode Hall Law School’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Program, Prof. Pina D’Agostino set out to create a program that would lead IP law discourse, foster a vibrant community whose members are welcome to share broad perspectives, and diversify the IP innovation ecosystem. Now, 13 years later, IP Osgoode and the IP Innovation Clinic are still forging new paths and relationships in the IP community.

Here are a few noteworthy accomplishments from the past year:

IP Osgoode

• Runners-Up at the Oxford IP Moot: in March 2021, for the first time. Under Prof. D’Agostino and Prof. David Vaver’s academic supervision and expert coaching from lawyers at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and Deeth Williams Wall LLP, our team placed second after an incredible showing and very close competition, winning the Kirkland & Ellis Runner-Up Prize for Oral Proceedings in the process.
• Leading Legal Disruption Published: in May 2021, . The book, titled Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law, was co-edited by Dr. Aviv Gaon of IDC Herzliya and Carole Piovesan of INQ Law.
• Two Bracing for Impact Webinars: IP Osgoode collaborated with the Harry Radzyner Law School at the IDC Herzliya and Microsoft Canada to present two new webinars in our Bracing for Impact Event Series: “” in and “” in , the latter being also in collaboration with Alectra’s GRE&T Centre. The webinars featured speakers from around the world and drew in almost 250 spectators between them.
• First Virtual Trademark Hearing: thanks to the Honourable Justice Michael Manson of the Federal Court of Canada, over 70 Osgoode students and faculty members virtually attended the .
• IPilogue’s Return to Daily Publishing: under a new structure, the has returned to publishing daily blog articles written by our dedicated team of IPilogue Writers. Almost 270 articles have been published over the past year alone, more than 120 more than the previous year. We continue to receive and publish guest submissions from students, academics, lawyers, and members of our as well.

IP Innovation Clinic

• IP Innovation ChatBot Launched: The IP Innovation Clinic officially launched its through a . Developed with assistance and support from Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, CIPO, and ISED Canada, the AI-backed ChatBot provides accurate and reliable IP law information for free on our website. Thanks to further funding from ISED through the National IP Strategy, we look forward to continuing to expand the breadth of the ChatBot’s impact and better reach and assist members of underrepresented communities in the IP Innovation ecosystem.
• Mitacs-funded Business Strategy Internships: in March 2021, . The IP Innovation Clinic placed 3 Clinic Fellows with businesses pivoting their operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. D’Agostino was also featured in the marking the official launch of the program.
• Clinic Clients Secured Millions in Funding: two IP Innovation Clinic clients leveraged IP information from our Clinic Fellows to massive expansions of their business. to develop their drone technology and for their sustainable clothing brand.
• First LPP Candidate: during the Winter 2021 Term, under the supervision of IP Osgoode alumnus Reshika Dhir of Bereskin & Parr LLP, the IP Innovation Clinic . We look forward to welcoming two new LPP candidates in Winter 2022.
• The IP Lunch Club Continues: for the second year in a row, and in collaboration with the City of Barrie Sandbox Centre, Prof. D’Agostino’s Directed Reading: IP Innovation Program students presented , educating local entrepreneurs and innovators about registering and commercializing IP rights. Many attendees from these webinars go on to engage the IP Innovation Clinic for IP and commercialization assistance.

As always, we are grateful to all of the students, faculty, partners, and our Advisory Board for making this past year as great a success as it was. None of the above accomplishments would have happened if not for their passion, dedication, and hard work. As we welcome new students and continue to seek out more involvement, we look forward to another wonderful year and welcome new students and partnerships who can help us grow to even greater heights.

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Position: Hearing Officer,

Employer: , Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Government of Canada,

Location: 50 Victoria Street, Gatineau, QC, K1A 0C9

(flexible but preference for candidates located or able to relocate to the Ottawa-Gatineau area)

Tenure: Full-time or Part-Time

Annual Salary Range: $71,599 to $77,368

Description:

Delegated by the Registrar of Trademarks, the Hearing Officer presides over legal proceedings and renders legally binding decisions to enforce and foster compliance with the Trademarks Act and trade agreements (e.g. CETA, CUSMA), and determines whether a party will maintain exclusive and monopolistic commercial trademark rights across Canada by issuing clear and well reasoned decisions appealable to the Federal Court.

Hearing Officers are expected to preside over hearings individually and render decisions on 30 to 40 cases per year as well as prepare and issue correspondence with parties.

Education and Experience

Essential:

• A Law degree from a recognized university in a relevant field of study or an acceptable combination of education, job-related training and/or experience
• Experience in applying legislation, regulations and jurisprudence/legal precedents in writing documents
• Experience as an adjudicator (presiding hearings and rendering legally binding and final decisions)

Asset:

• A law degree from a recognized post-secondary educational institution would be considered an asset
• Experience in trademark prosecution or examination would be considered an asset

Abilities:

• Effective communication (written & oral)
• Ability to draft rulings
• Judgement
• Analytical thinking
• Attention to detail
• Service excellence
• Relationship management and collaboration
• Results orientation

Contact: Martin Béliveau, Chairperson, Trademarks Opposition Board

(martin.beliveau@ised-isde.gc.ca)

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The IP CoE was established as part of the National IP strategy. The team represents a significant step forward for Canada and the value the government has placed on improving the IP culture with the Canadian public and within the federal government. The focus of the IP CoE is to provide strategic IP advice to government program designs and policies, develop best practices, perform data analysis on IP trends and approaches, and promote awareness on common IP issues. I was excited and encouraged to learn the systematic approach that the IP CoE team is taking in order to promote as part of improving the IP regime in Canada.

My work with the IP CoE offered a unique experience that helped me understand the current IP issues from the Canadian government’s perspective. IP plays an important role in the success of Canadian businesses – from growing the economy and creating jobs in Canada to helping Canadian businesses establish a competitive advantage in the international marketplace. The meetings I’ve attended provided an inside look into what Canada has done and how the Canadian government plans to pursue its stated goals under the national IP strategy.

The placement experience gave further insight into how the government operates internally. Following the on September 23, 2020, I attended a series of meetings that parsed through how the contents of the speech impacted the department’s work going forward. Throughout the placement, I was also reminded that my work products will be reported to senior officials and impact IP culture in Canada. The significance of the work I was part of made the experience even more meaningful.

COVID-19 has had a large impact on all aspects of life and the IP Intensive placement was no exception. Despite this, my placement experience adapted well to the new reality. I was able to work virtually from home in Toronto with the IP CoE team residing primarily in Ottawa. We had periodic working-level meetings to keep the team updated on each of our work assignments. I was in constant communication with my supervisors as well. Although I never got to meet the team in-person or experience working and living in Ottawa, I was warmly welcomed by the team and seamlessly integrated.

Overall, I had a wonderful experience with the IP CoE and would recommend the placement to anyone interested in learning about IP from a government’s point of view. I got a glimpse of what it’s like to work for the government and met incredible people along the way. I feel strongly that this experience will serve to benefit my professional development as I pursue a career in IP law.

I want to thank everyone at ISED, especially the IP CoE team, for making my experience so memorable. I also want to take this moment to thank everyone at IP Osgoode for this unique opportunity and for all the work they put in to make the placement possible despite the COVID- 19 pandemic. IP Osgoode is best described as an opportunity that keeps on giving. My placement has offered me a part-time position, which I started in January 2021. I am very grateful to have been able to rejoin the IP CoE team this semester and continue my placement work with them.

Written by Ryan Wong, JD Candidate 2021, enrolled in Professors D’Agostino and Vaver's 2020/2021 IP & Technology Law Intensive Program at Osgoode Hall Law School. As part of the course requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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On April 26, 2021, the theme of World IP Day 2021 is “”. Since I founded the IP Innovation Clinic in 2010, the Clinic has helped countless innovators, entrepreneurs, and small businesses to do exactly that. Our students have provided basic legal information to clients who otherwise would not have any access to it. To date, the Clinic has subsidized over $2,000,000CDN of legal fees that would otherwise have been paid by those without access to resources. This past year, the Clinic has expanded its impact through the recently launched , a free legal chatbot which uses a vast database of credible IP information to answer users’ initial IP questions and guide them to the type of legal help they need. This is only the beginning of the ChatBot’s story.

In a critical time of Covid-19 isolation, I aim to ensure that the IP Innovation ChatBot’s content is accessible and attuned to the unique realities of underrepresented communities in Canada’s intellectual property (IP) innovation ecosystem; namely, women and indigenous peoples. Having assisted clients in these underrepresented groups in the IP Innovation Clinic, and through my own research and writing in this area, I have seen first-hand the distinct struggles these groups confront in the traditional IP innovation ecosystem and the distinct challenges they face to bring their innovations to society; from being silenced in their ideation phase to lacking adequate resources and know-how to develop IP strategies attuned to their unique needs and perspectives.

This AI-powered initiative has been launched thanks to the Canadian government’s , and supports its mandate to increase IP awareness and education by making IP information more accessible. These learnings can easily be applied to other areas of the law.

The ChatBot has been realized due to visionary IP Innovation Clinic champions backing our work, Innovation York at �첥��Ƶ, Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) at the very outset and Bergeron Entrepreneurs Science and Technology (BEST) Program at Lassonde School of Engineering and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) Canada LLP. Indeed, the technical and legal expertise of Partner, Maya Medeiros, and Al Hounsell at NRF, and our Osgoode JD team of students led by Ryan Wong, class of 2021. It is also an honour to work closely with other leaders in the federal government such as the Konstantinos Georgaras, CEO (Interim) at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and Jennifer Miller, Erin Campbell and their teams at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), who understand and work hard to overcome the challenges Canadian innovators face.

I previously uncovered the various challenges that underrepresented communities face in the IP innovation system and how grassroots initiatives, such as IP legal clinics, can assist in and in more recent work to use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to build an IP Innovation ChatBot to make IP law more accessible. Going forward, I plan to expand on this foundational and empirical work to build the IP Innovation Clinic and the ChatBot to make the IP innovation ecosystem more accessible.

Ultimately, in an era of increasing technological disruption and lingering societal inequality and pandemic isolation, I hope to influence future legal education and make our justice system accessible to all Canadians.

Indeed, AI applications, including legal chatbots, use machine learning to make the law more understandable, manageable, useful, accessible, predictable, and efficient. Legal chatbots increase access to justice through their wider reach and lower costs. Many underrepresented communities receive either inadequate or no legal help at all. Technology currently cannot provide complex legal advice, but AI-powered online legal services can cost-effectively deliver accessible, basic legal help. Some, like our IP Innovation ChatBot, do so for free. Chatbots can thus democratize access to basic legal services for the underserved, and therefore deserve greater study and adoption.

Since its January 29, 2021 launch, the IP Innovation ChatBot has been a magnet for public use. Several members of the legal community have already inquired to learn how to emulate it. With the information from these analyses, I plan to design and build an enhanced, interactive, dynamic, and accessible portal powered by next-generation artificial intelligence operating on big data curated by our pioneering IP Innovation ChatBot.

The ChatBot will remain a free, sophisticated, and smart online tool, driven by AI and designed to cater to underrepresented and disenfranchised innovators. It will soon house key IP resources and information, leading updates, and links to Canadian and international government IP resources. The ChatBot’s scaled-up national platform will analyse its amassed archive of data and identify common IP knowledge translation problems to devise and anticipate solutions. Adapted for the COVID-19 era and beyond, the ChatBot will support the next generation of lawyers, educate and stimulate innovation from underrepresented communities, provide start-up entrepreneurs with access to IP resources, and be the public’s go-to tool for independent and impartial IP knowledge.

Prof Pina D’Agostino is Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the IPilogue, the IP Innovation Clinic, and officially since January 2021 the recently launched IP Innovation Clinic ChatBot.

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After a full day of highly successful sessions and speakers, the wrapped up with a line of esteemed presenters speaking on ‘’.��

2019 Intellectual Property Awareness and Use Survey

Senior Policy Advisor Teodora Cosac began the session by introducing the 2019 , a collaborative effort by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), and Statistics Canada.��

While IP protection is often credited with significant contributions toward innovation and economic growth, little research has been conducted on the actual relationship between the formal use of IP and the economic performance of the firms that use it. The IPAUS sought to address this policy question and data gap by conducting empirical, firm-level analyses on 16,000 enterprises across Canada. The survey targeted businesses of varying sizes and across all sectors of the economy, and its response rate of over 75% was consistent across all segments. Data was collected on business structure and activities, executive demographics, IP awareness, and IP use.��

The data aims to establish a baseline for the effectiveness of IP strategy for firms and to improve our understanding of whether businesses think IP is relevant for growth and why. Additionally, the IPAUS profiled underrepresented IP-using groups, as well as IP “non-users”, and their IP-related challenges and decisions .��

Importance of Patents (And How to Calculate It)��

Next, Dr. Andrew W Torrance, distinguished law professor and Senior Director of the Intellectual Property Department at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, spoke to his research on . This method of database and network analysis views patent publications and their citations as forming a vast network of “nodes” (publications) and “links” (citations), representing the millions of choices that inventors make when developing their patented ideas. By treating this kind of data as a network, one can learn more about where patent knowledge is generated, where it flows, and how patterns have, and likely will, change.��

Dr. Torrance and his colleagues used the “Eigenvector” algorithm, which works especially well for analyzing patent documents. Patent value often correlates with citations, but raw citations can be misleading. In a network context, patents found in the middle of a network may seem more important; but the Eigenvector centrality and hierarchical graphing techniques calculate specific metrics based on emerging patterns to show that patents out on the fringes of networks may be way more important than initially thought.��

The resulting network offers a panoramic view of distinct technological sectors by disclosing closely related technologies for which its patents will cluster together. The approach has also revealed important positive correlations, such as that between citations and the monetary value of a patent, and between patent importance and litigation.��

Using international patent data from , global patterns of patent knowledge flow can also be collated and graphed. Results show developing countries unfortunately still participate relatively much less. Data research in worldwide patent importance can help to assess company and country innovation performance both generally and in specific technology areas.

ISED’s Data Strategy: From Vision to Implementation��

The session concluded with a presentation by Chief Results and Delivery Officer, Julie McAuley, who canvassed for creating, protecting, managing, using, and sharing data. The strategy followed the Government’s acknowledgement that it must improve its approach to data with respect to governance, funding, procuring, authorities, rule sets, and digital backbone within the next decade.��

Having begun its consultation period in 2018, ISED could quickly develop a data strategy roadmap for the federal public service based on 21 recommendations covering 4 pillars: governance, peoples and culture, environment and digital infrastructure, and treating data as an asset. To date, ISED has applied their recommendations in numerous areas of growth, including investments in talent, the establishment of a departmental data catalogue, the implementation of an analytics sandbox, and pilot training in artificial intelligence (AI) at all levels.��

The government is looking to invest in future-minded talent who can and will view data as a strategic asset. ISED has also clarified that its roadmap is “ever-green” in nature and subject to new innovations, developments, needs, and values. With a continued focus on the future, the government’s numerous next-step directives are compatible with the shifting landscape of digital information to come.��

Conclusion��

Wrapping up the 4th Annual IP Data & Research Conference, the final session’s three speakers came to a poignant consensus about the importance of data availability and collaboration between governmental and non-governmental entities. Accessible, usable, and high-quality data is proving to be highly invaluable to effective policy-making, and will no doubt only rise in significance in the future.��

Emily Xiang is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. She is an IPilogue Writer and an executive for the Intellectual Property Society of Osgoode.

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With Canadians' mounting frustration��and the dwindling prospects of exiting��this pandemic any time soon, it is vital that we unite as a nation to innovate. How Canada continues to respond to the pandemic will also define how we respond to future global challenges. Leading the development of new vaccines, more effective personal protective equipment, and new and improved systems��of distribution and administration of the vaccine are just some instances of what is necessary now. This pandemic has highlighted our societal inequalities and our fractured innovative landscape.

The university, one of Canada’s cradles of innovation, must continue to innovate out of this crisis and future crises. With innovation more critical than ever, how do we increase collaboration, coordination, and access to salient data and information during prolonged isolation?

Intellectual property (IP) is a powerful legal tool to foster innovation. It merits a context-specific approach on when, and whether, to protect assets from the inventor/ startup stage to the scale-up phase. However, COVID-19 has amplified the challenges faced by our brightest researchers and innovators. They are unable to access laboratories, have limited access to funds to start up a company, lack the know-how and support, and do not know where to go to obtain the needed help to protect their inventions. Under these conditions, IP can go undetected until it is too late. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights protecting valuable work are not well understood, and often never see the light of day. Finally, when IP is detected and advised to be protected, the innovation costs are prohibitive, starting with the patent pro- cess costing upwards of $20,000 to protect a single patent.

It is no wonder then how Canada, a country with so much talent and potential, is still playing catch up to other countries’ patent filings and, importantly, commercialization successes in the form of licensing deals, startups, and scale-ups from their own valuable IP.

As a response, closer partnerships between universities and industries��are becoming commonplace. Take as��an example the University of Oxford��and AstraZeneca trailblazing partnership to tackle the global pandemic with a COVID-19 vaccine. While these university-industry partnerships can help, they also risk a power imbalance between Canadian universities and multinational companies. There is no guarantee that Canadian jobs will be generated and retained in Canada, even though they may be founded on Canadian science and innovation.

Another promising mechanism is the use of university commercialization clinics such as the IP Innovation Clinic at �첥��Ƶ’s Osgoode Hall Law School. The clinic is the first of its kind, where law firms supervise law students who work directly with clients to formulate an IP strategy. This initiative accounts for more than 6,000 hours of pro-bono work, saving innovators close to $2-million to date during a nascent stage where resources are scarce.

One of the clinic’s success stories is Skygauge Robotics, a drone robotics company that landed a $3.3-million funding deal, and did so during a pandemic through the clinic’s support. Skygauge’s ambition is to build a company that keeps people innovating and working in Canada — a perfect example of how providing a friendly and supportive innovation ecosystem can be a game-changer to Canada’s innovation economy.

Seeing the need to continue innovating, especially during the pandemic, the IP Innovation Clinic, seized on the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI). Enter Isaac Pewton, the IP Innovation ChatBot that��can now answer any number of intellectual property questions. Powered by AI, the ChatBot learns and becomes smarter the more questions are asked of it. The goal is to balance the informational asymmetry in the innovation ecosystem and make valuable IP knowledge accessible to everyone for free.

This ChatBot is more important than ever to underrepresented communities, including women and Indigenous peoples who have typically not fared well in our in- novation ecosystem, and whose conditions are exacerbated from the pandemic. The ChatBot empowers these disenfranchised and remote communities with valuable information and direct access to the clinic for further services for free.

The ChatBot itself is an innovative example of a successful university-government-private partnership. Funded by Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada’s IP Clinics Program, pursuant to the federal government’s National IP Strategy and developed by a team of lawyers and technical experts at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, and Osgoode Hall Law School, the AI-powered ChatBot, by providing highly valuable IP information, can help Canadian entrepreneurs scale and learn quickly to innovate us out of this crisis and help future proof Canada against the next one.

Prof Giuseppina D’Agostino is a senior fellow with CIGI’s International Law Research Program (ILRP), effective November 2016. She is��the Founder & Director of IP Osgoode, the IP Intensive Program, and the Innovation Clinic, the Editor-in-Chief for the IPilogue and the Intellectual Property Journal, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Minister Bains highlighted how IP rich small and medium entities (SMEs) are twice as likely to be high growth and four times as likely to export. He pointed directly to cleantech as part of Canada’s needed “green recovery” from the financial impact of the ongoing pandemic. He looked to the patent collective to help Canada in its transition from an “industrial economy to an innovation economy” and explained how the IAC will “foster the collaboration that will bring Canada to a sustainable future.”

Following Minister Bains’ remarks, a roundtable lead by Mr. Hinton featured from IAC partner Business Development Canada, leaders from two potential IAC member companies, Daniela Roper of and Jon Lipinski of , and Mr. Cowan of the IAC. The potential members provided insights as to how the IAC would act as a shield for member companies that draw the attention of international behemoths, particularly nonpracticing entities, which are concerned about their freedom to operate. They relayed how as their companies mature, their IP becomes both a threat and attractive to these behemoths. They are therefore exposed to risk created by the leverage the large companies’ substantial IP portfolios can bring to bear.

Mr. Cowan described how these issues are being exacerbated during this pandemic driven downturn as the cost associated with holding patent assets encourages companies to sell them and how this gives NPEs the opportunity to amass patents at low costs. He relayed how the financial pressure furthers the gap between those companies and countries who can think about IP and those who do not have the capital to do so. For him, it is important how Minister Bains has positioned Canada well in this space and that the IAC is a key piece in supporting Canada’s endeavours to be one of the countries that thinks about IP by helping companies with the burden of doing so.

Both Mr. Hinton and Mr. Cowan explained that the IAC was not going to replace traditional IP service providers nor is its goal to acquire patents either from or explicitly for the practice of their members. Rather, its mission is to “give companies the knowledge base to help them ask the right questions of the IP service providers” and to provide them with the intelligence to back up those questions. The idea is to create a situation where the members can better engage with their service provider.

Mr. Cowan stressed that it is the intention of the IAC to tailor its patent portfolio to its members’ needs as they develop, but as an initial approach, it will make acquisitions to pull low value deterring patents off the market and to rescue patents at risk of being abandoned from being acquired by entities that would pose as an obstruction. While the IAC may license to members or provide a covenant not to sue, the primary purpose is to clear the way for Canadian innovation.

The plan, which Mr. Cowan said was not novel but rather tailored to the Canadian environment, is to use the collective force of Canada as a whole to acquire a strategic defensive patent portfolio, to provide a shield for its members. This will allow Canadian SMEs to operate in the same waters as these larger typically foreign entities with at least some cover.

With its launch, the IAC is now accepting members and is excited to begin the work of supporting Canadian SMEs to better understand, commercialize and protect their IP.

Jared Sues is an IP Osgoode Innovation Clinic Coordinator and regular IPilogue Contributor

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But apart from substantive knowledge, perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned in my time at ISED is that government, while a unique institution with a responsibility to the public and mandate to act in its best interest, is still an organization in its own right. In hindsight, it seems strange to view the federal government, which , as a monolith. It is a collection of diverse groups and interests which, despite the (sometimes understandable, sometimes irrational) frustration directed at it, is full of people who genuinely go to work every day with the needs of this country front-of-mind.

There was perhaps no better time for me to have joined ISED; with the caretaker phase of the election, I got a sense of the government’s unambiguous awareness that its actions and legitimacy are deeply intertwined with the Governor-in-Council, and its accountability to Parliament and the Canadian people. But even during this time, with the sensitivity it brings, things need to get done. Without the overarching direction of Cabinet, the iterative nature of governance was on display in a way that might not have otherwise been obvious. That is to say, as much as the activities of a government department may be shaped by the Minister at its helm or the Government of the day, so too does the bureaucracy have a role, indeed a responsibility, to gather information and evidence, to inform, and to provide elected leaders with the tools they need to make decisions and evaluate whether and how past decisions are working.

To do their job properly, policy-makers must consult with a diverse range of stakeholders to ensure that all perspectives are canvassed. But, unlike the adversarial common law framework that has been so engrained in my head these past two years of law school, it is also important that points of view not expressed by stakeholders are considered – in my opinion, it is perfectly reasonable, if not essential, for the government to have its own perspective on a given issue (though it must be tempered by a vigilant ‘step-back’ to ensure that this view is in line with the public interest, both as defined by Canada’s elected leaders and as a more general concept).

Developing that kind of holistic perspective requires continual engagement – identifying stakeholders (including those who may not realize they are stakeholders), receiving their points-of-view, critically evaluating their ideas and concerns, including as against those of other stakeholders, and re-engaging with that newly-informed perspective to repeat the process. The end goal of this is, cognizant of elected leaders’ priorities, to build a consensus where possible, or at least narrow down the range of options and implications. Consensus-building doesn’t just extend beyond government, however. I’ve also very much internalized the importance of understanding that, much as private entities build partnerships and dialogues to achieve their shared interests, it is also invaluable for policy makers to develop those kinds of relationships within government.

Looking toward my future, this process has given me a newfound appreciation for judges, who by the nature of their job have to rely on a limited set of viewpoints. It has also made me, personally, question the advancement of wide-reaching, complex, controversial policy through the courts. It is not a question of trust or competence – judges, from my (relatively) limited experience are certainly among the best and brightest individuals who could be chosen for the role. But that role comes neither with the mandate to consider all points of view nor the institutional supports to do so. I therefore come away from government (and law school) appreciating the judicial system as a pivotal institution to hold the government to account and prod it to action, but am more understanding of decisions that leave the ‘how’ to Parliament, the Executive, and the Administration – when it comes to the judicial branch of a healthy liberal democracy, justice is best served correctively, not prescriptively.

To close, thank you to ISED, MFPB, and my team at CTPD. It was an enriching experience, and I was genuinely sad to leave.

Peter Werhun is an IPilogue Editor and JD Candidate, enrolled in Professors D’Agostino and Vaver 2019/2020 IP & Technology Law Intensive Program at Osgoode Hall Law School. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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During my placement at ISED, as part of Osgoode's , I was able to attend many of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology’s (INDU) of the Canadian . These meetings involve a selected group of Members of Parliament who are well-versed in the Canadian digital and creative economies. The INDU Committee is with studying and reporting on the activities of stakeholders in any market where copyright legislation may be implicated. Interested parties – known as ‘witnesses’ – are able to appear before the INDU Committee, explain what their organization does, how copyright reform can impact their operations, and what reform ought to occur to accommodate their interests in the years to come. As for my role, I was able to sit back and observe a panel of MPs choreograph the delicate balance of competing rights among a diverse range of experts and industry leaders.

Copyrighting a Choreographic Work

Speaking of choreography, the submissions by Kate Cornell, Executive Director at the Canadian Dance Assembly at INDU’s taught me a thing or two about how copyright law interacts with choreographic works. Kate Cornell argued that the definition of ‘choreography’ under s.2 of the Copyright Act ought to be amended to reflect the present-day use of dance movements. The Canadian Dance Assembly sought a broadening of the definition to include dance movements that occur on digital platforms, citing as support purchasable in the billion-dollar game . However, the boundaries of what constitutes a protectable choreographic work or a mere physical movement were left undefined.

In its deliberation, the INDU Committee considered several examples, including , the similarities between , and the from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. The Committee cited discontent from Chance the Rapper, who claimed that games like Fortnite , to frame the loss of control creators experience over their choreography and how software with a free-to-play business model can subsist, at least in part, by . However, drawing inspiration from pre-existing works is a cornerstone of creative arts and, in some cases, a third-party repurposing a work for a new audience can have a on the original creator’s popularity.

Accessibility and Usability

Balancing competing interests is also paramount to ensuring creative and educational content is available to all Canadians. The INDU Committee’s invited representatives from the (CNIB) and the (CCD) to address the accessibility and usability needs of Canadians under the current copyright regime. The CNIB��proposed amending the Act to ensure copyright protection “[could not] be granted to a literary work unless the production of such a work is done in an alternate format for persons with a print disability”. John Rae, speaking on behalf of the CCD, suggested an amendment that would prohibit the disbursement of federal funds to “any program, policy, contract or grant that would contribute to perpetuating barriers or creating new ones” and drafting legal documents in plainer and more understandable language. On the other hand, publishing creative or educational works in alternative, accessible formats incurs additional production costs which can impact the competitiveness and market success of publishers – especially so for smaller publishers.

At first glance, the proposed amendments may seem strict, but they highlight the importance of understanding the barriers faced by many Canadians. For example, the inability to access alternative format academic materials can impede one’s ability to participate and succeed in a post-secondary environment, consequently disadvantaging one’s competitiveness in the job market.

In Summation…

In shaping Canadian policy, it is important to reflect on the bigger picture and consider the real-world impact of legal debate. Attending INDU Committee meetings humanized legal discussions and presented the unique opportunity to observe the law beyond the books – as advocates and politicians regularly do.

Written by Dominic Cerilli.�� Dominic is a Senior IPilogue editor and JD candidate at Osgoode Hall, and�� was enrolled in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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