Common Law Students Win Harold G. Fox Intellectual Property Moot

Technology Law, Ethics and Policy
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Common Law students were victorious at the 2014 Harold G. Fox Canadian Intellectual Property Moot, which took place in Toronto on February 21 and 22, 2014. In addition to winning the overall championship, Common Law won four of five possible prizes.

Giantommaso Colaneri and Veronica Tsou won the Gordon F. Henderson Award for the best written submissions by an appellant team. Nathaniel Piche and Laurel Hogg captured the overall championship, The Harold G. Fox Cup, while Laurel was also recognized with the Donald F. Sim Award as the best oral advocate at the competition. Along with that prize, Laurel also won the Dimock Stratton LLP award for the best second-year student. She and a partner have earned a trip to next year’s Oxford International Intellectual Property Moot to defend the University of Ottawa’s winning title in that competition from 2013. The students’ superb performance, winning four of five possible prizes, was underpinned by invaluable assistance from team member Michael Souweha.

Professor Jeremy de Beer coached and mentored the team. In addition to the practitioners and students who volunteered their time to judge practice sessions, very special thanks go the winning team’s sponsors, Ridout & Maybee LLP.

The competition took place in the courtrooms of the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto. This year’s appeal questioned whether a method of diagnosing a chronic kidney disease was patentable subject matter and, if so, whether that invention had be sufficiently disclosed to the public as part of the patent bargain. Two teams from eight Canadian law schools took part in the competition.

The final panel of judges included Supreme Court of Canada Justice Marshall Rothstein, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie, Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Kathryn Feldman, Federal Court of Appeal Justice David Stratas, and one of Canada’s foremost patent experts, Federal Court Justice Roger Hughes. These and other judges and expert practitioners throughout the competition praised all of the University of Ottawa team members for their stellar advocacy skills.

Giantommaso Colaneri attributed part of the team’s extraordinary performance to the numerous rehearsals in the University of Ottawa’s new Ian G. Scott Courtroom, Canada’s first and only fully functional courtroom and adjoining classroom located inside a law school. “The formal courtroom setting in the Federal Court building felt less daunting for our team,” he said. “Our experiences in an equally sophisticated venue had prepared us well.”

Congratulations to all of the team members and their coach!

To read more about the Harold G. Fox Moot: Click here