TORONTO, October 19, 2011 – Does Canada have anything to learn from Europe? This is the question posed by IP Osgoode’s international conference on European perspectives on copyright law, chaired by Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino, an associate professor and founder and director of IP Osgoode – the Intellectual Property Law and Technology Program at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.

The conference, titled “Can Canada Learn Anything From Europe?: European Perspectives on Copyright Law in the Information Era”, is taking place on Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, at the Ottawa Convention Centre in Ottawa, Canada.

As it brings together an unprecedented line up of experts from Europe to speak on copyright issues that countries like Canadaface, the timeliness of this conference is clear. It was only a few weeks ago, on Sept. 29, that Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore and Minister of Industry Christian Paradis announced the reintroduction of the Government of Canada's Copyright Modernization Act (Bill C-11).

Professor D’Agostino states, “We don't hear enough about European copyright law, especially when it comes to reforming the law in Canada. Is there anything we can learn from Europe? This event will provide an opportunity to discuss and consider comparative and regional approaches emanating from Europe – which will contribute to ongoing debates regarding copyright policy in Canada.”

Conference presenters include Justice Vittorio Ragonesi, a judge of the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy; keynote speaker Dr. Silke von Lewinski of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law; and Victor Nabhan, a special professor at the University of Nottingham and president and chair of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI). Nabhan assisted in organizing the conference and will be chairing one of its panel sessions.This international copyright conference is the latest in a series of IP initiatives that D’Agostino has introduced at Osgoode in the past three years. In 2008, she launched IP Osgoode with the promise that the new program would “provide an independent and authoritative voice on intellectual property issues and broaden and enhance the relevant public policy debates and practices in Canada.”

For Osgoode, it is an opportunity to influence public policy right where it happens, in Ottawa, at the Ottawa Convention Centre – mere steps away from Parliament in our nation’s capital. “The conference is designed for a wide-ranging audience, from government to the academy, from stakeholder organizations to members of the public,” says Professor David Vaver, who is also involved in organizing the conference and is chairing one of its panel sessions. Vaver, one of the world’s leading authorities on IP law, returned to Osgoode from theUniversity of Oxford in 2009 to take up the post of professor of intellectual property law and become a member of IP Osgoode. 

IP Osgoode is taking its focus on technology seriously. “All are welcome to attend. The conference proceedings will also be webcast to Osgoode Hall Law School, to Stanford University (one of IP Osgoode’s research collaborators), and everywhere. All you need is a computer and Internet connection,” D’Agostino explains.

Additional full-time faculty who are involved in organizing the conference include Professors Carys Craig and Ikechi Mgbeoji (who will be chairing the webcast), both IP Osgoode members. 

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Media Contact:

Pauline Wong,
Assistant Director of IP Osgoode
pwong@osgoode.yorku.ca  
416-650-8449

or Jody-Ann Rowe-Butler,
Administrative Assistant for IP Osgoode. 
jrowe-butler@osgoode.yorku.ca    
416-736-2100 x33476