This workshop is presented by York University Student Fellows from the IP Innovation Clinic at Osgoode Hall Law School in partnership with York University Libraries.

The commercialization of intellectual property in university environments is a developing, dynamic, and widely debated topic situated within the broader academic, legal, and public policy discourse about the appropriate scope and breadth of intellectual property protections. This presentation will explain the role of intellectual property at universities, their academic and commercial importance, and what current university curated policies are in place to regulate and guide the commercialization process. It will then delve deeper into the current legal and regulatory landscape governing intellectual property commercialization in Ontario, including what challenges authorities are facing and what solutions they have proposed to address them.

Student speakers:

Jaime Zorilla is a 3rd year JD/MBA student at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business. Prior to law school, he completed a Master’s of Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto as well as an undergraduate degree in Justice, Political Philosophy and Law at McMaster University. As a Clinic Fellow for both the IP Innovation Clinic and Osgoode’s Venture Capital Clinic, he is primarily driven by getting to understand not only his client’s businesses, but their products and sources of innovation.

Tanzim Rashid is in his 3rd year of the JD/MBA program at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business. Prior to law school, he completed his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Ethics, Society & Law and Criminology at the University of Toronto (Trinity College). Between his undergraduate and legal studies, Tanzim worked in the financial services sector at the Royal Bank of Canada, and, this past summer, at the Corporate Legal Department at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health. Tanzim will be formally starting his legal career in corporate litigation next summer at Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP. As part of the IP Clinic, Tanzim is enthusiastic about better understanding how entrepreneurs, artists, and researchers gain legal protections for their creations.

The IP Innovation Clinic is an innovation-to-society legal clinic staffed by law students and operated in collaboration with York University’s Innovation York with support from Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Bereskin & Parr LLP, and OWN Innovation. Since 2010, the Clinic has served a clientele that is needs-based and under-serviced, such as individuals or SMEs who do not have the resources to hire a lawyer, patent/trademark agent or other advisors, to realize, protect, and commercialize their IP rights. To date, the Clinic has helped over 460 under-resourced clients to save over $2 million in legal costs.

To learn more about the IP Innovation Clinic, please visit https://www.iposgoode.ca/innovation-clinic/about/. Please note that you can also direct your IP questions to the Clinic's IP Innovation ChatBot here: https://www.iposgoode.ca/innovation-clinic-chatbot/. To engage the Clinic' s services, please visit https://www.iposgoode.ca/innovation-clinic/become-a-client/.