The Harold G. Fox Moot is an annual Canadian advocacy competition open to all law schools. It is intended to promote the furtherance of legal education in the intellectual property field. The moot

Moot court

A moot court is an extracurricular activity at many law schools in which participants take part in simulated court proceedings, usually to include drafting briefs and participating in oral argument. The term derives from Anglo Saxon times, when a moot was a gathering of prominent men in a...

 is named in honour of the late Harold G. Fox, one of Canada’s leading intellectual property scholars and advocates.

Founded by

The Fox Moot was founded by Professor Emir A. C. Mohammed and Mohamed Hashim, both of the University of Windsor Law School, and the partnership of Dimock Stratton LLP. There were two main sources of inspiration for the Moot for Professor Mohammed at the University of Windsor. During the 2007 - 2008 academic year, he had helped coach all of Windsor’s competitive Moot teams (Gale, Laskin, Jessup, Wilson and the Corporate/Securities Moot) which made him realize that the majority of competitive Moots in Canada were either grounded in criminal law or constitutional law. At that moment he had a suspicion that there had to be some hidden mass of intellectual property students (and their professors) who would certainly favour a moot on intellectual property issues. Another source of inspiration was David Vaver, the director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Centre from 1998 - 2007. The center holds an annual Intellectual Property Moot. During the 2008 Moot at Oxford, even the University of British Columbia sent a contingent which indicated further credence to the notion that there was a silent need for a domestic, Canadian, Intellectual Property Moot.

Administration

The moot is sponsored by Dimock Stratton LLP and administered by a committee of jurists, practitioners, academics and students. In the inaugural 2008-2009 moot, the committee was Professor Emir Mohammed and Angela Furlanetto, partner of Dimock Stratton LLP as co-chairs, Justice Sexton, Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Cronk, Ontario Court of Appeal, Chief Justice Lutfy, Federal Court, Mohamed Hashim (Law III), University of Windsor Law School, Cristina Mihalceanu (Law II), University of Windsor Law School, Ronald Dimock, Partner, Dimock Stratton LLP, Bruce Stratton, Partner, Dimock Stratton LLP.
The moot is further administered by the University of Windsor Intellectual Property Student organization. The Windsor Intellectual Property and Information Technology Group (WIPIT) featured Geoffery Marr as the 2008-2009 President, Cristina Mihălceanu (Vice President Internal), Esmaeil Mehrabi (Vice President External), Varoujan Arman (Treasurer), Andrew Eckart (Vice President Communications & Secretary and Ilan Mints (Law 1 Representative).

About Harold G. Fox

Dr. Harold G. Fox, K.C./Q.C. M.A. LL.B. B.C.L. Ph.D., had a distinguished career as a lawyer, an academic, a businessman and an author.

The First Annual Harold G. Fox Moot Intellectual Property Moot (February 20/21, 2009)

The inaugural Moot was held February 20 and 21 in Federal Court in Toronto, Ontario. Eight Canadian law schools participated in the first Moot. The participating schools included McGill University, Osgoode Hall, Queen's University, University of Alberta, University of Ottawa, University of Western Ontario, and University of Windsor.

The Moot featured a highly notable group of panelists consisting of many leading Canadian practitioners of intellectual property law, as well as judges from five levels of Canadian court, including the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal, Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. The justices presiding were:

• The Honourable Marshall Rothstein, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• The Honourable J. Edgar Sexton, Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal
• The Honourable Karen Sharlow, Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal
• The Honourable Stephen Goudge, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
• The Honourable Kathryn Feldman, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
• The Honourable Robert Sharpe, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
• The Honourable Eleanore Cronk, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
• The Honourable Robert Blair, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
• The Honourable Allan Lutfy, Chief Justice of the Federal Court
• The Honourable Judith Snider, Justice of the Federal Court
• The Honourable Michael Phelan, Justice of the Federal Court
• The Honourable Roger Hughes, Justice of the Federal Court
• The Honourable Russel Zinn, Justice of the Federal Court
• The Honourable David Brown, Justice of the Superior Court of Justice for Ontario
• The Honourable Julie Thorburn, Justice of the Superior Court of Justice for Ontario
• The Honourable Lois Roberts, Justice of the Superior Court of Justice for Ontario

In addition to Dimock Stratton LLP as the founding sponsor, the Moot also attracted the additional sponsorship of many law firms and legal publishers including:

Bereskin & Parr, Blakes Cassels & Graydon, Bennett Jones, Cameron MacKendrick, Carswell, Deeth Williams Wall, Gilberts, Goodmans, Gowling Lafleur Henderson, Hitchman & Sprigings, Leger Robic Richard, Ogilvy Renault, and Smart & Biggar.

The two day competition ended with the University of Western winning the award for overall best mooting team. The University of Ottawa won both best oralist and best factum.

Fox Moot Tradition

The moot features an annual tradition at its conclusion. After the awards are handed out to their respective winners, all participants are asked to stand up and recite a toast: “Let’s all be upstanding, a toast to Harold Fox.”