Sir Robert Raphael Hayim "Robin" Jacob, PC (born 26 April 1941) is a former

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

in the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only t ...

Personal life

Jacob's father was Sir Jack Jacob, a Senior Master of the High Court who is well-known for editing the White Book on

civil procedure Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced; what kin ...

in the UK.

Education and professional career

He read Natural Sciences (physics) at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

(1960-1963) and law at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

(1963-1967). He was called to the bar by

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1965 (Treasurer 2007). From 1976 to 1981, he was the Junior Counsel for the Comptroller of Patents and for Government departments in intellectual property. He took

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...

in 1981. In 1993, he was appointed a High Court judge (a designated Patent Judge) and to the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

in 2003. His primary area of expertise is intellectual property rights. He was admitted to the IP Hall of Fame in 2006. He was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in IP award by MIP in 2012. The position he held before includes member of the Scientific and Advisory Board of the European Patent Office and the European Commission’s Expert Group on the development and implications of patent law in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering. He is the President of the Intellectual Property Judges’ Association (the association of European IP, particularly patent, judges) and the Chairman of the Advisory Board concerning appointment and training of Judges to the Preparatory Committee for the Unified Patent Court (and also a member of the Committee’s Expert Panel). He retired from the Court of Appeal in March 2011 (acknowledged in a valedictory address before a court-room packed with well-wishers) to take up his current position as the

Sir Hugh Laddie Sir Hugh Ian Lang Laddie (15 April 1946 – 28 November 2008) was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales.The Guardian, obituary.Caroline ByrneFormer Judge, London Law Professor Hugh Laddie Dies at 62 Bloomberg L.P., 2 December 2008. Cons ...

Chair in Intellectual Property Law at th
Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL)

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. However, in accordance wit
section 9
of the Senior Courts Act 1981, he has continued on occasion since that date to sit as a judge in the High Court and the Court of Appeal until April 2015. Jacob is currently a

door tenant A door tenant is a barrister who has been granted permission to join a set of chambers and work with them from premises outside the chambers themselves.Anna Williams (ed), ''Chambers Student Guide to the Legal Profession'' (London: Chambers and Pa ...

at 8 New Square Chambers. In 2018, Jacob took up the post of a Justice at the

Astana International Financial Centre The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) is a financial hub in Astana, Kazakhstan that officially launched on July 5, 2018. On 20 May 2015, the President of Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the “100 Concrete Step ...

in the capital of Kazakhstan.

Selected cases in which Jacob appeared as counsel

* Interlego AG v Tyco Industries (Hong Kong)

988 Year 988 ( CMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Fall – Emperor Basil II, supported by a contingent of 6,000 Varangia ...

UKPC 3 - in which he successfully argued that designs for

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocki ...

's bricks were not protected by copyright * Smith Kline & French Laboratories v Evans Medical

989 Year 989 ( CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to help him defeat ...

1 FSR 561 - in which it was held that private acts can infringe upon a patent if they are done for commercial purposes * Lux Traffic Controls v Pike Signals 993RPC 107 - it was held that a prototype tested publicly such that an observer would be able be to figure out how it worked would be disclosed, and thus constitute prior art

Judgments

High Court

* Henry Brothers (Magherafelt) Ltd v Ministry of Defence

997 Year 997 ( CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first child of the ...

RPC 693 - concerning a patent for a prefabricated blast-proof building designed for use in Northern Ireland during

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

*
Mars UK v Teknowledge
' 999EWHC 226 (Pat) - where he held that the mere fact of encryption will not make information confidential for the purposes of the action for

breach of confidence The tort of breach of confidence is, in United States law, a common law tort that protects private information that is conveyed in confidence. A claim for breach of confidence typically requires the information to be of a confidential nature, wh ...

Court of Appeal

*'' Walton v Independent Living Organisation'' 003EWCA Civ 199, 003ICR 688, 003IRLR 469 -

UK labour law United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK can rely upon a minimum charter of employment rights, which are found in Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equit ...

, regarding the

National Minimum Wage Act 1998 The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom.. E McGaughey, ''A Casebook on Labour Law'' (Hart 2019) ch 6(1) From 1 April 2022 this was £9.50 for people age 23 and over, £9.18 for 21- to 22-year-olds, £6 ...

*
Reed Executive Plc & Anor v Reed Business Information Ltd & Ors
' 004EWCA Civ 159 - UK

trademark law A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

, on the test of confusion *
Hyperion Records v Dr Lionel Sawkins
'

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

EWCA Civ 565 - concerning copyright in unfinished works by Lalande that had been completed by the claimant *
IDA v University of Southampton
'

006 Alec Trevelyan (006) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film '' GoldenEye'', the first film to feature actor Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Trevelyan is portrayed by actor Sean Bean. The likeness of Bean as Ale ...

EWCA Civ 145 - concerning a patent for a cockroach trap *
Pozzoli SPA v BDMO SA and others
'

007 The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

FSR 37 - he set out the prevailing test for

inventive step The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive—i.e., non-obvious—in order to be patented. In other words, " henon ...

, reformulating the test set out by Oliver LJ in the ''

Windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

'' case *'' Aerotel Ltd v Telco Holdings Ltd''

RPC 7 - UK patent law, regarding the excluded subject-matter (software) in the UK patent law *
European Central Bank v Document Security Systems
'

EWCA Civ 192 - notable for the graphical illustration of the importance of consistency in interpreting patent claims in relation to validity and infringement:

... Professor Mario Franzosi likens a patentee to an
Angora cat Angora may refer to: Places *Angora, the historic name of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey *Angora, Philadelphia ** Angora (SEPTA station), a commuter rail station * Angora, Minnesota * Angora Township, Minnesota * Angora, Nebraska * Angora L ...
. When validity is challenged, the patentee says his patent is very small: the cat with its fur smoothed down, cuddly and sleepy. But when the patentee goes on the attack, the fur bristles, the cat is twice the size with teeth bared and eyes ablaze.

*
Procter & Gamble Co v Reckitt Benckiser (UK) Ltd
'

EWCA Civ 936 - UK design law

Publications

A Guidebook to Intellectual Property: Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright and Designs (6th edn, 2013)

"Is IP out of control?" (2020) 15(2) ''Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice'' 98

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Robin 1941 births Academics of University College London 20th-century English judges Knights Bachelor Living people Lords Justices of Appeal Members of Gray's Inn Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of the London School of Economics Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics Governors of the London School of Economics 21st-century English judges