2020 Copyright Policy Moot Best Papers

Copyright Policy Moot is a national policy “moot” competition where students produce policy proposals on current copyright issues. This year’s Copyright Policy Moot invited students to write possible amendments to the Copyright Act. Students were supposed to travel Ottawa and present their proposals to decision-makers within the civil service. 

Due to the pandemic, the 2020 Policy Moot was held online. 5 Law schools participated including Sherbrooke, Osgoode, U of T, U of Ottawa Civil and Common Law sections, and McGill. 

You can access the two best proposals by the links below written by McGill students

1

Authors: Jonathan Martin, Anaïs Martin, Arthur Scalabrini

Title: MEMORANDUM TO CABINET AMENDING CROWN COPYRIGHT IN THE PURSUIT OF AI INNOVATION

2

• Authors: Marc Lussier Angèle Poupard Yasmine Shadman
• Title: Modifying Reversion Rights in the Music Industry to Better Protect the Rights of Artist-Creators

Backgrounder

The pilot for this Moot competition was a course called “IP in the Making” – created by Professor Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse (McGill University) and Jean-Arpad Français, in collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development –– in the winter of 2015. The goal was to both give students an understanding as to how intellectual property law is drafted, and to solicit innovative approaches to the law. Students participated in the course (including two lectures provided by civil servants), produced policy proposals, and then came to Ottawa to get feedback from a panel of civil servants knowledgeable about copyright policy.

In the winter of 2018, given its success at McGill Faculty of Law, the course ” Copyright Policy Moot” was introduced from McGill to four other law schools – Osgoode Hall (York University), University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and l’Université de Montréal. As part of the course assessment, students would present a policy propsal and participate in an oral competition held in Ottawa. The Director Generals of the two federal copyright branches served as the final judges in the oral competition. The awards were given to the top papers and top presentations. The event was followed by a reception, and received positive feedback from students and public servants who served as the judges.

Participating schools were responsible for course approvals, structure of course etc., while civil servants provided two lectures to the participants on copyright policy and on writing and briefing in the public service.

Generally, participating universities used either a course-based or moot-based model, depending upon the resources available and approvals required.

This content has been updated on June 17, 2020 at 14:53.