20th Annual Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Moot Competition

This year's problem will focus on film copyright, with sub-issues relating to copyright and moral rights.

• The Problem (updated 16 November 2022)
• Corrections and clarifications
• The Rules

Whilst celebrating the 20th Oxford International IP Moot we welcomed mooting teams from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom. As well as judges from The Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre, top barristers’ chambers, law firms and Universities.

After seven rounds of intense competition litigating a moot case concerning copyright and pastiche in the context of movies, the Allen & Overy Winner of the Oral Proceedings 2023 is the University of Ottawa.

For a full list of winners, please see the Results News Page

Congratulations to the 28 teams who will be participating in the Oral Proceedings of the 20th Annual Oxford International Intellectual Property Moot from 15th to 18th March 2023: 

• Australian National University
• City, University of London
• Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University
• Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
• Goethe-University Frankfurt
• Gujarat National Law University
• ILS Law College, Pune
• Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad
• Jindal Global Law School, O.P Jindal Global University
• King’s College London
• London School of Economics
• Monash University
• NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad
• National University of Singapore
• Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
• Queensland University of Technology 
• Singapore Management University
• Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
• The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA)
• Tsinghua University, Beijing
• University College London
• University of Bern
• University of Cambridge
• University of Hong Kong
• University of New South Wales
• University of Ottawa
• University of Sheffield
• University of Technology Sydney

The winning team will receive the Allen & Overy Prize. 

The 2023 moot concerns Bouvier v Erewhonian Airlines [2022] HCE 213. The moot problem focusses on film copyright, with sub-issues relating to copyright and moral rights. A copy of the problem is available in the instructions and rules section, along with relevant statutory provisions and a list of the cases referred to by Justice Chen-Wishart.

Teams will be arguing in front of the Supreme Court of Erewhon, the apex court of a fictional common law jurisdiction of Erewhon. All teams will be required to participate in four preliminary rounds over two days, where they will make submissions as both the appellant and the respondent. Eight teams will progress to the knock-out rounds. The panel for the Grand Final will comprise Lord Kitchin of the United Kingdom Supreme Court, Lord Justice Arnold of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, and Professor Robert Burrell, Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, University of Oxford.  

We would like to thank Rowan Freeland (former partner at Simmons & Simmons) for leading the marking team and his team of markers for marking the submissions:

• Andy Lee (Brandsmiths)
• Mario Bouchard                             
• Jon Ball (Norton Rose)
• Ian Starr (D Young & Co)
• Jim Cormack (Pinsent Masons)
• Paul Abbott (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)
• Lauren Crais (University of Oxford)
• Tom Edwards (Allen & Overy)
• Li Liu (University of Oxford)
• Rebecca Halford-Harrison (Keystone Law)
• Gordon Harris (Gowling WLG (UK) LLP)
• Diana Sternfeld                                
• Joel Smith (Hogan Lovells)
• Andrea F. Rush (Blaney McMurty LLP)
• Caoimhe Ring (University of Oxford)
• Eleanor Wilson (Mishcon De Reya)
• Sarah Mathew (University of Oxford)

And also a special thanks to Catriona Smith (Wiggin) for supporting the marking process.

Thank you to all teams who participated in the written phase of the moot this year. 

The Faculty of Law and the OIPRC are grateful to the following for making the IP Moot 2023 possible:

To keep apprised of announcements and news in relation to the moot (#OxIPMoot), please follow us on Twitter: @OxIPMoot. This page will also be updated as further information becomes available.

If you are a university or higher education institution interested in participating in the moot and receiving information about future IP Moots, please subscribe to our maillist by sending a blank email and subject line to ipmoot-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.  You will be sent a confirmation request and, once you reply to it, a message confirming that you are a subscriber.  Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time by sending a blank email to ipmoot-unsubscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Academics and legal practitioners specialising in intellectual property who would like to volunteer their time to mark and/or judge the moot, can subscribe to our judges maillist by sending a blank email and subject line to ipmoot-judges-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.   We will inform you through the maillist when we are looking for markers/judges for next year's moot and beyond. You will be sent a confirmation request and, once you reply to it, a message confirming that you are a subscriber.  Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time by sending a blank email to ipmoot-judges-unsubscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.