It's international IP moot time again

This weekend, the beautiful surroundings of Worcester College, Oxford, will be filled with scores of intellectual property lawyers as they gather for the 6th International Intellectual Property Moot. Leading practitioners will arrive to judge teams of mooters from 24 universities. In addition to European teams, mooters will travel from as far afield as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Canada and Sri Lanka to compete in this annual intellectual property extravaganza.

The work began last October, when eager students set about composing written submissions in the hope of qualifying for the oral stage of the competition. The moot problem is an appeal to the Supreme Court of Erewhon, in a claim by the producers of Bullinger Special Cuvée champagne against the producers of Bellinger sparkling wine. The Erewhon High Court and Court of Appeal both held that a claim for copyright infringement succeeded (holding that a blend of wine is a work of authorship) and granted an injunction against the defendants, but dismissed various claims of unfair competition and trade mark infringement. The moot spans all of these areas of law, as the defendants appeal and the claimants cross-appeal from the decisions of the lower courts.

24 teams have now been invited to attend the oral round of the competition in Oxford. All competitors moot twice on Saturday 15 March, before 8 teams are selected to proceed to the quarter-finals, held that evening. The semi-finals will take place in the morning of Sunday 16 March, before the Grand Final at 2.15pm – judged by Lord Justices Mummery and Jacob and Mr Justice Floyd. Although a tightly scheduled weekend, the timetable comes complete with ample allocation of socialising time, culminating in Sunday night’s black tie feast and Award Presentations.

You can find contact details of the organisers (the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre) here [this information was kindly furnished by the IPKat's friend Patricia Edwards].