Sir Nicholas Richard Pumfrey

Judiciary of England and Wales There are various levels of judiciary in England and Wales—different types of courts have different styles of judges. They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges o ...

government web site
''Senior Judiciary List''
. Consulted on 13 May 2007. (22 May 1951 – 24 December 2007)

Jeremy Phillips Jeremy Phillips (born 25 December 1951jeremyphillips.blogspot.com. Consulted on March 24, 2007.) is a retired British academic, author, editor, publisher, and commentator in intellectual property (IP) law.Ben Moshinsky''Olswang returns to Slaught ...

''Sir Nicholas Pumfrey 1951-2007''

IPKat IPKat is a law blog founded in June 2003, and dedicated to intellectual property law (IP) with a focus on European law.Alex Newson, Deryck Houghton, Justin Patten, ''Blogging and other social media: exploiting the technology and protecting the ent ...

, 30 December 2007. Consulted on 30 December 2007. styled The Rt Hon. Lord Justice Pumfrey, was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

. He served as a High Court judge for 10 years, and was promoted to the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

little more than a month before his sudden death.

Early life and education

The son of Peter and Maureen Pumfrey, Nicholas Pumfrey was brought up in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, where his father was a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

. He was educated at

St Edward's School, Oxford St Edward's School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'. Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rug ...

.10 Downing Street web site
''Privy Council Appointment of Sir Nicholas Pumfrey''
20 November 2007. In 1969, he

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (also known as The Hall and Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university" and was the las ...

, where he received his

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

in 1972. He also completed a degree in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

in 1974.

Career

Pumfrey was called to the Bar by the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1975, where he was made a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher c ...

in 1998. He specialised in

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

law, and was a Junior Counsel to Her Majesty's Treasury (Patents) from 1987 to 1990, and was appointed a QC in 1990. He became a Judge of the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...

Chancery Division The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

, in 1997 and was knighted.10 Downing Street web site
''Nicholas Pumfrey appointed as Lord Justice of Appeal''
4 July 2007 His first instance decision in the case brought by Prince Jefri of

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

against his accountants

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

was upheld by the House of Lords after being overturned by the Court of Appeal. He was a regular speaker at the annual intellectual property conference at

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and taught at the

Max Planck Institute The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

in Munich. He was the first British judge to join the enlarged board of appeal of the European Patent Office in Munich. At least from 1 January 2003 to 21 December 2004, he was a legally qualified external (non-permanent) member of the

Enlarged Board of Appeal The European Patent Convention (EPC), the multilateral treaty instituting the legal system according to which European patents are granted, contains provisions allowing a party to appeal a decision issued by a first instance department of the Eu ...

of the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

(EPO). *European Patent Office
''Information from the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office''
Supplement to

Official Journal of the European Patent Office The ''Official Journal of the European Patent Office'' (''OJ EPO'') is a monthly trilingual publication of the European Patent Office (EPO). It contains "notices and information of a general character issued by the President of the European Patent ...

No. 1/2003 (Presidium and business distribution 2003), page 3. *European Patent Office
''Information from the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office''
Supplement to Official Journal No. 1/2004 (Presidium and business distribution 2004), page 3. He was promoted to the

and appointed a

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Just ...

upon the retirement of Lord Justice Chadwick on 4 November 2007.

Personal life

Pumfrey kept a house in the

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

where he kept bees and hunted

truffles A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, one of the species of the genus ''Tuber''. More than one hundred other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including '' Geopora'', '' Peziza'', '' Choiromyces'', and ' ...

. He enjoyed cycling in earlier years, and later took to BMW motorcycles. He was a member of the

Garrick Club The Garrick Club is a private members' club in London, founded in 1831 as a club for "actors and men of refinement to meet on equal terms". It is one of the oldest members' clubs in the world. Its 1,500 members include many actors, writers, ...

. A confirmed bachelor, he never married. In the summer of 2007, he was diagnosed as suffering from an arrhythmic heart condition combined with

high blood pressure Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms itself. It is, however, a major ri ...

and

high cholesterol Hypercholesterolemia, also called high cholesterol, is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. It is a form of hyperlipidemia (high levels of lipids in the blood), hyperlipoproteinemia (high levels of lipoproteins in the blood), ...

. He died on 24 December 2007, aged 56, following a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

. His funeral took place on 14 January 2008 in

Temple Church The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the Inner Temple, Inner and Middle Temple, Middle Temple, London, Temples located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their En ...

, London.

Judgments

Justice Pumfrey ruled in the important copyright case of Navitaire v Easyjet (2004), where he found that the 'look and feel' of a computer program could not be protected by copyright law without access to the program's source code. The judgment is seen to be in line with the Directive on Computer Programs. He decided the case of Cantor Fitzgerald v Tradition UK (2001), where he ruled that the 3,000 out of 77,000 lines of copied source code by Tradition's programmers would be substantial, it not being important to substantiality what use the program made out of the code, i.e. whether it could function without it or not, but it would be a substantial if the part taken was original. He ruled in Sandman v Panasonic that a single create effort could result in both a literary and artistic copyright, giving the example of a calligraphic poem of a cat.

Bibliography

* ''The Protection of Designs'', contribution in ''International Intellectual Property and the Common Law World'', edited by Charles E.F. Rickett and Graeme W. Austin, Oxford : Hart, 2000,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pumfrey, Nicholas 1951 births 2007 deaths Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford 20th-century English judges Lord justices of appeal Knights Bachelor Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford Chancery Division judges 21st-century English judges