Prof. David Vaver presenting the 14th Annual Sir Hugh Laddie Lecture ()

Sally Yoon is an IPilogue Writer, IP Innovation Clinic Fellow, and a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.

On June 22, 2022, I had the pleasure of tuning into the 14th Annual Sir Hugh Laddie Lecture. Over the years, the lectures have been delivered by distinguished experts from across the globe. This year, the lecture was delivered by our own Professor David Vaver, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, the first Chair in Intellectual Property & Information Technology Law at the University of Oxford, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, member of the Order of Canada, and Member of IP Osgoode’s Advisory Board. The was delivered in person at the UCL Cruciform Lecture Theatre and live-streamed for viewers across the world.

Sir Hugh Laddie was born in 1946 and studied law at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales, a professor, and a leader in the field of intellectual property. Since his passing in 2008, the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) at the University College London (UCL) Faculty of Laws has organized and delivered , in honour of Justice Laddie, the founder of IBIL.

Prof. Vaver began the lecture by summarizing strands of Justice Laddie’s thinking – he believed IP legislation, which is not different from other legislation, should be looked at as a whole, and that precedence he believed to be misguided should be challenged. He then mentioned three maxims that guided Justice Laddie’s career and offered a general view of his philosophy. A few examples, translated from Latin, being “if someone’s got a right, do something about it”, “in equity, good folk win, bad folk lose”, and “deep pockets shouldn’t always prevail”. As a result of the combination of these strands of thinking, Justice Laddie was able to firmly stand for what he believed intellectual property should and should not do, over the course of his career.

Additionally, Prof. Vaver recognized some of Justice Laddie's significant contributions to trademark, copyright, and patent law. His contribution to trademarks included extending common law protection to unregistered geographical indications when he ordered , cautious of Cadbury’s marketing tactics potentially fooling customers.

In copyright, Justice Laddie warned us about the possibly of being misled by , that is, “chipping away and ignoring all the bits which are undoubtedly not copied may result in the creation of an illusion of copying in what is left”. Moreover, in an effort to determine what was actually copied in a work, he considered whether the work as a whole or its individual components should have their own copyrights. Eventually he rejected the concept of multiple copyrights, noting that legal millefeuilles with layers of different artistic copyrights would be “slicing too finely or indiscriminately”.

Lastly, Justice Laddie's approach to the Haberman Feeder case demonstrated his values regarding patentability. , named after its inventor Mandy Haberman, is a specialty bottle which uses a slit valve and is especially useful for feeding babies with feeding difficulties. When the patent for the bottle was challenged for obviousness, Justice Laddie considered the long history of infant feeders (and the absence of anything like the Ms. Haberman’s bottle within it), utilizing unique perspectives to see the value in otherwise readily available solutions.

Overall, Prof. Vaver’s lecture was a wonderful way to remember his valuable contributions and to learn more about the diverse topics (as the title suggests) he dealt with in his career in intellectual property. Justice Laddie’s lasting mark on each of his cases makes it easy for us to remember annually why he remains a cherished figure in the field of intellectual property law.

You can watch UCL's full recording of the lecture here:

The post Prof. David Vaver Presents “Mr. Justice Laddie and his Intellectual Property Cases: Of Millefeuilles and a Fish Called Elvis” appeared first on IPOsgoode.

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Sir Robin Jacob is the Sir Hugh Laddie Chair of Intellectual Property Law at University College London (UCL) and a former judge of the Court of Appeal for England and Wales. The following tribute will be published on the and has been reproduced on the IPilogue with Sir Jacob's permission.

Chambers is sad to announce the death of Professor William Cornish. Sir Robin Jacob recalls one of chambers “greatest sons”:

Bill Cornish was a junior lecturer at LSE from 1962 to 1968. He did a lot there, including teaching a class of evening students which included a brilliant patent agent, Richard Lloyd and me, a Bar student. He taught for three years out of the four-year course:  contract, trusts and industrial relations. He did not just teach me the law – he taught me to think like a lawyer. But for him I doubt I would have been much good. He was top of the Bar Finals in 1965 (Wikipedia says he was called by Lincoln’s Inn, but we wasn’t.  It was Gray’s – I should know since I supported the move which had him made an Honorary Bencher).  Wondering what important and interesting topic to run with, he was, I think, much influenced by Richard Lloyd. Public credit is given to Otto Kahn-Freud, a great LSE professor. At all events Bill decided that IP mattered and he could do something with it. He became Thomas Blanco White’s pupil (in what was Francis Taylor Building and is now 8 New Square) for the year 1966-7.  I followed him next year as a pupil in FTB, not to Thomas Blanco but to Anthony Walton.  Bill did not fancy practice and set about creating an LIM IP course at the LSE – the first UK university to do such a thing. It started in 1967. In 1968 he went both to the Max Planck Institute in Munich and Queen Mary (as a reader).  He quickly learnt German, made many friends and developed his pan-national perspective of IP law. He popped back every now and then but left a lot of the teaching of the new course to Richard Lloyd and some to me – looking back that was a sign of great trust, at the time it was a lot of work but forced me to get on top of IP.

Bill came back to LSE in 1970. He consolidated the position of LSE as the top Law School for IP besides doing so many other things. The first edition of his great work on IP, Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights first appeared in 1980, written single-handed. It has run into lots of editions since.

Bill’s association with FTB/8NS was unswerving. I can’t remember when he became a door tenant though I can remember that he was the first! About 1973 I would guess.

Bill was poached by Queen Mary when the Herschel Smith foundation endowed a Chair of IP. Cambridge poached him from there! And at Cambridge he set up the Centre for European Legal Studies.

From what I have written so far one might get the idea that Bill was a bit of a one-track IP man. But far from it. He touched many branches of the law, staring with a book about the Jury in 1968. His main interest was actual legal history. He was a major contributor to the Oxford History of the Laws of England and was the main author of Law and Society in England 1750-1950. He was a gifted pianist and above all a warm, funny, modest and gentle man.

The world of IP has lost a giant.  I will miss him greatly

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