IP Osgoode

Gowling WLG Prize

Gowling WLG Best Blog in IP Law and Technology Prize

About: The Gowling WLG Best Blog/Comment in Intellectual Property Law & Technology Prize was pioneered in Professor Giuseppina (Pina) D’Agostino’s Fall 2007 Intellectual Property Law class and has been generously sponsored each year since then by international law firm Gowling WLG. As a sector-focused law firm, Gowling WLG provides clients with in-depth expertise in key global sectors and a suite of legal services, including a leading IP practice and 300-strong global Tech team.

Prize: Four prizes in total are awarded for each academic year: one prize for Best Blog and one for Best Comment are awarded for each of the Fall and Winter semesters. The winning posts/comments are highlighted on the IP Osgoode website and in our social media. The winners also receive a $500 award, are announced at Convocation, and receive a permanent notation on their official Osgoode Transcript.

Eligibility: All full-time Osgoode Hall Law Students who submit articles to the IPilogue or comment directly on blog posts during the academic year are eligible for the prize and their submissions automatically considered, regardless of whether the post or comment was submitted as a course requirement. The submission deadline for consideration is the last day of classes in each academic year as determined by York University.

Please submit your blog post to iposgoode@osgoode.yorku.ca Comments on an existing IPilogue post can be made directly on the website, please use your Osgoode email so that your comment can be identified as an eligible entry by an Osgoode student.

Winners of the Gowling WLG Prize

Winter 2022 Term:

Best Blog: Claire Wortsman: A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace: Ukrainian Cultural Heritage at Risk 

Best Blog Comment: We did not award a winner for this category 

Fall 2021 Term:

Best Blog: Kwangil (David) Park: What is a Method of Medical Treatment? 

Best Blog Comment: We have a tie. 

Samantha Melhado’s comment on “Let the Chips Fall Where They May: Hershey Sues Californian Cookie Maker 

Lamont Abramczyk’s comment on “UK Court Finds Use Of Ring Surveillance Equipment Infringes Privacy Rights Associated With The General Data Protection Regulation 

Winter 2021 Term:

Best Blog Post: Sebastian Romanutti on “Working Remotely during COVID-19 and its Privacy Risks

Best Blog Comment: We have a tie.

Elif Babaoglu’s comment on “How Machine Learning Could Play a Key Role in the Diagnosis of Rare Genetic Diseases

Jared Sues’s comment on “Big Tech & Antitrust Suits

Fall 2020 Term:

Best Blog: Summer Lewis on “X-Ray Vision: How the Latest Deepfake Privacy Invasion is Revealing the Dark Side of AI Technology

Best Blog Comment: We did not award a winner for this category

Winter 2020 Term

Best Blog Post: We had a tie.

Ryan Wong, 3L student, “Is Red the New Blue? Will IBM’s Patent Strategy shift under new leadership?

Maggie Vourakes, 3L student, “Facial Recognition Technology and the Retail Sector: Opportunity or Liability?

Best Blog Comment: Madison Black, 3L student, “The Future is Female: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Symposium at Osgoode Hall Law School

Fall 2019 Term

Best Blog Post: Lauren Chypyha, 3L student, “Protecting Freelancer rights: What about Social Media?

Best Blog Comment: We did not award a winner for this category.

Winter 2019 Term

Best Blog Post – We have a tie.

Gillian Burrell on “Randomly Generated Art Draws Copyright and Trademark Infringement Claims”

Saba Samanian on “The (Un)Controllable Rise of Smart Clothing”

Best Blog Comment: Alessia Monastero’s comment on “Use of Facial Recognition Software at Calgary Malls Raises Privacy Concerns”

Fall 2018 Term

Best Blog: Peter Werhun on “Don’t Tread on Me (or My ISP): Rogers v Voltage Pictures”

Best Blog Comment: We did not award a winner for this category

Winter 2018 Term

Best Blog Post – We have a tie.

Denver Bandstra on “Robotic Trolls

Ekin Ober on “AI for Social Good: Becoming Aware of Differnet Interests

Best Blog Comment: William Chalmers’ comment on “Legal Battle Over Monkey’s Selfie Leads to Settlement

Fall 2017 Term

Best Blog: Roger Angus on “Legal Battle Over Monkey’s Selfie Leads to Settlement

Best Blog Comment:  We did not award a winner for this category

Winter 2017 Term

Best Blog: Paul Blizzard on “IP Intensive: Stanford CodeX – Sunshine, Start-ups and Silicon Valley

Best Blog Comment: Jacquilynne Schlesier’s comment on “QaD tlhIngan pong yab bang chut? Is Klingon protected by copyright law?

Fall 2016 Term

Best Blog: Jordan Fine on “Infringement City Blues (Make Ed Sheeran Wanna Holler)

Best Blog Comment:  Sebastian Beck-Watt’s comment on “3D Printing Raises Intellectual Property Legal Issues Not Seen Before in Traditional Printing

Winter 2016 Term

Best Blog: Jasmine Godfrey on “Fashion Labels and Inuit Designs: When Law is Not Enough

Best Blog Comment: Brendan Monahan’s comment on “The User-Generated Content Exception: Moving Away from a Non-Commercial Requirement

Fall 2015 Term

Best Blog: Jennifer Davidson on “Attacking the Attack Ads: Broadcasters Strike Back

Best Blog Comment: Lisa Hartman’s comment on “The Italian Data Protection Authority’s Annual Report 2013 – Big Data, Transparency and Surveillance

Winter 2015

Fall 2014

Best Blog: Anya Lavrov on “The IP Hackathon at Osgoode: Designing Solutions to Make Canada’s Patent System More User-Friendly

Best Blog: Adam Falconi on “Certainly Commendable but Perhaps not Practical – Canada’s Competition Bureau Releases Guidelines on Pharmaceutical Litigation Settlement

(Note: A winner for best comment for the fall 2014 term was not declared because there were no eligible comments posted by Osgoode students)

Winter 2014

Best Blog: Nicholas Arruda (The Keller/O’Bannon Lawsuit: Why Canadians Should Care)

Best Blog Comment: Harjot Atwal (Comment on Garcia v Google Inc.: Copyright Ownership, ISP Liability and the Future of Freedom of Expression)

Fall 2013 Term

Best Blog: Anatoly Zhitnik (Targeted Advertising Puts Bell in Sights of the Privacy Commissioner)

Best Blog Comment: Quinn Harris (Comment on A Moral Right to Graffiti?)

Winter 2013

Best Post: Meng Xiao (Nancy) Situ (Technology Stars in Silicon Valley – An Intensely IP Semester at Stanford: A Semester in Osgoode’s IP Intensive Program)

Best Comment: Danny Titolo (Comment on The ‘Myriad’ with the Golden ‘Gene’: Australia Upholds Breast Cancer Gene Patents)

Fall 2012

Best Post: Mark Bowman (Military Tactics and Rock Star Patent Lawyers; the Patent System under Stress)

Best Comment: Maximilian Paterson (Comment on Third time a charm? The Innovative Design Protection Act in the face of The Knockoff Economy)

Winter 2012

Best Comment: Alexander Ly: (Bill C-11: Through the Lens of Social Norms)

Best Post: Joshua Dallman: (The SOCAN Experience: A Semester in Osgoode’s IP Intensive Program)

Fall 2011

Best Comment: Elias Lyberogiannis (Parsley, Parsnip, Peas, & Peppers: Patent Policy Perspectives From the Vegetable field)

Best Post: Philip Goldbach: (Steve Jobs: A Legacy In Patents)

Winter 2011

Best Post (tie): Adam Heckman (Australia’s Federal Court rules ISPs must help prevent Copyright Infringement)

Best Post (tie): Clara Klein (Cloud-Based Content and TPMs: the Cloud’s Part in the Next Incarnation of Copyright Reform)

Best Comment: Rita Gao (Response to “Trade-Off: Privacy and Facebook Application”)

Fall 2010

Best Post: Tiffany Wong (Senatorial Pursuit: A Canadian Perspective on the U.S. Reid-Angle Copyright Litigations)

Winter 2010

Best Post: Darren Hall ( The Doctrine of “Inherent Anticipation” in Canada: A Time for Review? )

Best Comment: Ankur Bhatt (Response to “Some Consideration of Patents and Traditional Knowledge Implications: The 2009 UN Report on the Status of Indigenous Peoples”)

Fall 2009

Best Post: Ren Bucholz ( Gospel, Gold Diggers, and Gum Trees: How Sampling Litigation Changes the Tune )

Best Comment: Daniel Kennedy (Response to “Feminism and Intellectual Property Law”)

Winter 2009

Best Post: Jamie Goodman ( The Overprotection of Olympic Marks in Canada )

Best Comment: Kate Lacey (Response to “The Necessary Link Between Open Source Software and a Substantive Intellectual Property Regime”)

Fall 2008

Best Posts:

Barry Stork ( Liberal Party of Canada and Green Shift Inc.: Principles Take a Back Seat to the Almighty Dollar )

Jonathan Giraldi ( CIRA’s WHOIS Policy Strikes a Balance )

Winter 2008

Best Post: Tamsin Thomas (Perspectives from a former scientist-in-training: If I knew then, what I know now…)

Best Comment: Conrad Seaman (Response to “The beginning of the end of net neutrality?”)

Fall 2007

Best Post: Bobby Solhi (Canada to Criminalize Identity Theft)

Best Comment: Rivka Birkan (Response to “Second Life “land” dispute moves offline to federal”)

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