An amateur apiarist who also happens to be a Justice of the High Court of England and Wales; conversazione on bee dancing, the golden delicious apple and the origins of the United States Plant Patent Act; followed by dinner at "Hogwarts". Where would one encounter such a unique and eccentric setting? At the Oxford International Intellectual Property Moot of course, which took place at Pembroke College at the University of Oxford from 19 to 21 March 2015.
Mooting is an age-old Common Law tradition used as an intense intellectual and adversarial exercise to train students for careers in law. For three days, law students from across the globe intensely mooted on complicated issues centered on a breach of confidence dispute and a patent infringement action in the biotech agricultural industry. Bucerius Law School mooting team: Alexander Wagner, Jannik Maas, Julius Greiner and Fabian Flüchter, were up against Queensland University of Technology, National University of Singapore, Boston University School of Law and National Law University Odisha from India. Winning three out of four preliminary rounds, losing only against National University of Singapore, our team narrowly missed out, by one point, to proceed to the quarter-finals. The Grand Finale was a rare opportunity for mooters to experience renowned High court judges in action and was held before senior members of the judiciary comprising of Lord Justice Kitchin, Lord Justice Floyd and Hon Mr Justice Birss. Later, at the awards dinner, Alexander Wagner fortuitously seated next to Mr Justice Birss, an avid apiarist enjoyed a bit of bee banter. The rest of the evening was filled with intellectual rigorous discussions on the ways in which technology and intellectual property law affect the agriculture industry.
Bucerius Law School were ranked tenth overall for the oral rounds and seventh for the written submissions. Special thanks to Monty Silley (Language Programme), who assisted with coaching our team for the oral rounds, and Professor Dr. Dana Beldiman, as well as Karsten Windler (both Center for Transnational IP, Media and Technology Law and Policy), our right hand man who organized and supported our team. Finally, well done to our dedicated mooting team who sacrificed time and energy all for the love of IP and mooting.
