New Judicial Appointments

Author Muhammad Karns Licence CC BY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

Rolls Building, Business and Property Courts

Jane Lambert

There has been a recent flurry of judicial appointments that will affect intellectual property dispute resolution in both London and the North of England.

On 26 June 2025, the Prime Minister announced the appointment of Lord Justice Birss as Chancellor of the High Court with effect from 1 Nov 2025 (see the press release Appointment of the Chancellor of the High Court: June 2025, 25 Jun 2025).  As the press release states, the Chancellor of the High Court is one of the most senior judges in England and Wales.  The Chancellor presides over the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal and sits as a judge of first instance in the Chancery Division.   He will have full responsibility for the Business and Property Courts in London and other centres, including the Patents Court, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the Intellectual Property List in the Chancery Division.  

Lord Justice Birss was called to the Bar in 1990 and practised at the intellectual property bar until his appointment as a judge of the Patents County Court in 2010.  Part of his responsibility was to implement the Arnold reforms, which I discussed in New Patents County Court Rules on 1 Oct 2010 in NIPC Law.  He was subsequently elevated to the High Court bench and assigned to the Patents Court. As a Patents Court Judge, Mr Justice Birss (as he then was) delivered the terms of the world's first global FRAND licence in Unwired Planet International Ltd v Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and another [2017] EWHC 1304 (Pat), [2017] RPC 20.  His decision was subsequently approved by the Supreme Court in Unwired Planet International Ltd and another v Huawei Technologies (UK) Co Ltd and another [2020] UKSC 37, [2021] 1 All ER (Comm) 885, [2021] ECC 17, [2020] RPC 21, [2021] 1 All ER 1141, [2020] Bus LR 2422, [2021] 4 CMLR 3 and I commented on it in Patents: Supreme Court upholds Court of Appeal and Sir Colin Birss on FRAND 27 Aug 2025 in NIPC Law.  In addition to sitting in the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Birss is Deputy Head of Civil Justice and the Lead Judge for Artificial Intelligence.

Four of the most important regional centres of the Business and Property Courts are Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne.  The judge in charge of the courts in those centres from 1 Oct 2025 will be Mr Justice Leech (see the Courts and Tribunals press release Appointment of Supervising Judge of the Business and Property Courts for the Northern & North Eastern Circuits 3 July 2025).  Since 3 July 2023, all small claims in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court filed on CE File or at the Rolls Building have been transferred to the Manchester Civil Justice Centre where they have been case managed by one of the district judges of that court (see Practice Note: Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) Small Claims Track 9 June 2023 HM Courts and Tribunals Judiciary mentioned in IPEC Small Claims to be Case Managed in Manchester 9 Jun 2023 NIPC Northwest).  

Traditionally, the presiding judge of the Business and Property Courts of the Northern and North Eastern Circuits inherits the title of Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster.  Until the merger of the Lancaster and Durham Palatinate Courts with the High Court following s.41 of the Courts Act 1971, the Vice-Chancellor had a separate court exercising chancery jurisdiction in Preston, Liverpool and Manchester.  It is usual for Vice-Chancellors to have a connection with Northern England. Mr Justice Leech's is that he was brought up and went to school in Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale.

The final judicial appointment that will affect IP litigation is the elevation of Mr Justice Miles to the Court of Appeal (see Courts and Tribunals Judiciary press release Appointment of Lord and Lady Justices of Appeal 26 Jun 2025).  Mr Justice Miles has been in the news recently because he was the trial judge in Iconix Luxembourg Holdings SARL v Dream Pairs Europe Inc and another [2023] RPC 15, [2023] EWHC 706 (Ch).

I respectfully congratulate all the judges on their appointments and wish them well. Anyone wishing to discuss this article further may call me on +44 (0)7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form.