Bio
Myra J. Tawfik is a senior fellow at CIGI, where she contributes expertise on strategies for capacity building in intellectual property (IP) literacy, IP strategy and cost-effective IP legal services for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Myra is professor of law and was recently promoted to the rank of distinguished university professor at the University of Windsor. She has founded and led a number of multidisciplinary clinical and experiential legal education programs to support innovation including student-led legal support for IP intensive start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Myra is a member of the Province of Ontario’s Special Implementation Team on Intellectual Property and previously served on a provincial expert panel on public sector commercialization of IP. She was recognized as Tech Researcher of the Year by the Windsor-based regional innovation centre WEtech Alliance in 2019 and received the University of Windsor Award for Outstanding Community Outreach, Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Mobilization in 2018. In 2016, she was appointed EPICentre Professor in Intellectual Property Commercialization and Strategy at the University of Windsor to continue her research and educational outreach initiatives for capacity building in IP literacy. Together with CIGI Senior Fellow Karima Bawa, she is co-author of The Intellectual Property Guide: IP Literacy and Strategy Basics for Supporting Innovation (Brush Education, 2019) and co-creator of a CIGI massive open online course on IP strategy.