AIPPI Canada Essay Competition 2026

AIPPI Canada seeks to promote scholarship in intellectual property law and awareness of AIPPI.  AIPPI Canada is thus sponsoring the 2026 AIPPI Canada Essay Competition open to law students and intellectual property agent trainees. 

Our 2024 essay contest winner was Amy Kwong for her essay entitled, “Contradictions in the fairness analysis for parodies in United Airlines Ltd v Cooperstock“.

Our 2025 essay contest winner was Gurnoor Kaur Brar (J.D. Candidate 2026, Western University, Faculty of Law), “Trade Wars, Pandemics, and National Security: Canada’s Compulsory Licensing Regime under Section 19 of the Patent Act”.

Students enrolled in J.D., LL.B., LL.L. or LL.M. programs in a Canadian University and Class 3 CPATA licensees are invited to submit an essay addressing one of the intellectual property topics below.  A winning essay will be awarded a prize of CAD $2500!

Qualifying essays should be substantive original works of at least 3000 and no more than 10,000 words and should address one of the topics, or an aspect of one of the topics, chosen for study at AIPPI’s 2026 World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. 

This year’s topics are:

  • [Patents] Double Patenting
  •  [Trademarks] Parody (and freedom of expression) as a defense to trade mark infringement
  •  [Copyright] Online infringement/issues of geoblocking
  •  [Litigation] Dynamic blocking injunctions

The above-linked Explanatory Notes provide some background for each of these topics and particular aspects that will be the focus of AIPPI’s 2026 study questions within those topics. Qualifying essays should explore the subject matter, or an aspect thereof, introduced and discussed in each of the Explanatory Notes, by reference to Canadian and/or international law.

Entries are due by May 1, 2026, and should be submitted to the Secretary of the AIPPI Canada at info@aippicanada.org. 

Please read the AIPPI Canada Essay Contest Rules, before submitting an entry.  All questions regarding the Rules, or the Competition, should be submitted to the Secretary of AIPPI Canada at info@aippicanada.org.