This year’s case raised issues related to copyright protection for re-creative photographs of public domain artworks, contractual terms of use of an online education portal, fair dealing by an academic and political blogger, and alleged moral rights infringement. The students’ first-prize-winning factum was submitted in December. Roughly half of teams who made written submissions were competitively selected to travel to Oxford, England for the oral proceedings.
uOttawa opened the competition by defeating the University of Cambridge, Université de Paris II, the 2013 Fox-moot winning team from University of Toronto (uOttawa won the 2014 Fox moot), and University of Nottingham. Only eight schools made the quarterfinals, where uOttawa narrowly bettered what the experienced judges called one of the best mooting teams they had ever seen from the National Law School of Bangalore. In the semifinals, U of T avenged its previous loss to uOttawa before falling to the grand final winners, Hong Kong University.
During months of preparation, the students benefited from countless hours of guidance and advice from previous uOttawa mooters, including Alexandra Mogyoros (’13), Katie Szilagyi (’12), Abigail Smith (’13), and John Wallace (’13). Thanks also go to the many intellectual property practitioners from Gowlings LLP, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, and others who volunteered their time for the students. Among these people, the team especially acknowledges the strategic and financial contributions of Ridout & Maybee LLP for its generous sponsorship of the Faculty’s intellectual property mooting activities.
Professor Jeremy de Beer coached the team as part of an innovative new course – the “Intellectual Property Advocacy Practicum” – taught partly in the new Ian G. Scott Courtroom, Canada’s first and only fully functional courtroom and adjoining classroom located inside a law school.
“Looking back, I can honestly say that this moot was one of the most amazing and educational experiences I’ve had during three years in law school,” says Lisa Danay. She and her teammates say they are eager to give back by mentoring next year’s team, promoting their own experience and the University of Ottawa’s extraordinarily successful mooting program as they begin their legal careers.
Congratulations to the team and its coaches on a stellar performance!