A tale of two judges

Colin smiling
(before his appointment)

The IPKat has discovered that Her Majesty the Queen has appointed none other than Colin Birss QC to be a Specialist Circuit Judge, Judge of the Patents County Court on the advice of the Lord Chancellor, the Right Honourable [sometimes one, sometimes the other, occasionally both, mewses Merpel] Kenneth Clarke QC MP.  As if this wasn't enough, the Lord Chancellor has gone and appointed the very same fellow as Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal. Both appointments take effect on Tuesday 5 October 2010.  Further details of Colin's background and a list of some big cases he starred in can be found here.  The IPKat congratulates Colin on his appointment -- if anyone can do it, he can -- and hopes that he has been promised something really worthwhile in return to his acceptance of not one poisoned chalice but possibly two.


Meanwhile, the Board of the Intellectual Property Institute is pleased to announce that Lord Hoffmann has been appointed Chairman of the IPI Council, the expert group within the IPI that oversees its research and work programmes.  IPKat team member Jeremy, an activist and keen supporter of the IPI, is delighted at this development and looks forward to Lord Hoffmann having a long and fruitful occupancy of this chair. Merpel says, he hopes someone oversees the launch of a new website for the IPI since the old one is, well, old, and the new one is not yet visible to the cat's naked eye.