Hugh Laddie Professor of Intellectual Property Law
Director of the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law, University College London
Having read Natural Sciences at Trinity College Cambridge, Sir Robin then simultaneously read for the Bar and took an LLB from the LSE. He was called to the Bar by Grays Inn in 1965.
He practiced at the Intellectual Property Bar from 1967. From 1976 to 1981 he was the Junior Counsel for the Comptroller of Patents and for Government departments in intellectual property. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1981. His practice took him abroad often (Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, USA, Australia). He was appointed to the Bench in 1993 and from the outset was a designated Patent Judge. From 1997 to 2001 he was Supervising Chancery Judge for Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in October 2003. He formally retired from the Court of Appeal in May 2011 to take up his current appointment. He continued to sit from time to time in Court of Appeal until April 2015. He acts as an arbitrator, mediator and expert witness on English or European law and is a member of the following arbitral bodies, SIAC, HKIAC, KLIAC, LCIA, and the newly created International Arbitration Centre in Tokyo. He is a Judge of the Court of the Astana International Financial Centre.
He is Hon. Fellow of the LSE, an Hon. Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford, an Hon. LlD of the University of Wolverhampton, Hon. President of the UK branch of the Licensing Executive Society, Hon. President of the Association of Law Teachers, a member of the Advisory Board of the European Law Centre of King’s College London and a Member of the Advisory Panel of the Unified Patent Court. He was a Governor of the Expert Witness Institute from its foundation until 2004 and from 2012 until 2018. He was Treasurer of Grays Inn in 2007 and a Governor of the LSE from 1988 to 2017. He was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in IP award by MIP in 2012. He was a member of the Scientific and Advisory Board of the European Patent Office. He has written extensively on all forms of intellectual property. He often lectures, mainly on IP topics, both in the UK and abroad and is regularly consulted on IP matters by the European Commission and the UK government. He is President of the Intellectual Property Judges’ Association (the association of European IP, particularly patent, judges) 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) and was a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on the development and implications of patent law in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
