Wissam Aoun joined the Faculty of Law in July 2019 as an Assistant Professor. In April 2021, he began a three-month term as Acting Associate Dean (Academic). His main areas of research interest include intellectual property law, with a focus on patent law, as well as professional regulation and governance. Wissam has previously taught in all areas of intellectual property, including copyright law, trademark law and patent law. He has also taught in the area of corporate law, including experiential courses covering corporate practice and contract drafting, and teaches administrative law.
Wissam is a highly-accomplished intellectual property clinician, with over ten years of international intellectual property clinical experience. He was the founding Director of the International Intellectual Property Clinical Program, a USPTO Certified Patent and Trademark Clinic and the world’s first international intellectual property clinic, operated jointly between Canada and the U.S. Prior to joining Windsor Law, he was Associate Professor of Law at Detroit Mercy Law, and IP clinical director of the CEL and LTEC Clinics at Windsor Law.
Wissam has won numerous teaching and scholarly awards. He was twice awarded the Hon. Justice Robert Abbey Award for Outstanding Special Lecturer at Windsor Law. In 2018, he was awarded the University of Detroit Mercy University Faculty Achievement Award in recognition of his achievements with the International Intellectual Property Clinical Program. He has been awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and recently received funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) IP Strategy grant in support of his forthcoming intellectual property clinical text. He has collaborated on research, education and training projects with IP institutions around the world, including the USPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). In addition, he has been a visiting researcher at Oxford University Faculty of Law and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition as well as a guest clinical lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London.
Wissam holds a JD and LLM from Windsor Law, and has completed his PhD at Osgoode Hall Law School under the supervision of Professor David Vaver.