Robin Jacob

Robert Raphael Hayim "Robin" Jacob, PC (born 26 April 1941) was as Lord Justice Jacob a judge in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.[1]

He read Natural Sciences (physics) at Trinity College, Cambridge (1960-1963) and law at the London School of Economics (1963-1967). He was called to the bar by Gray's Inn 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.[2] He took silk in 1981. In 1993, he was appointed a High Court Judge (a designated Patent Judge) and to the Court of Appeal in 2003.[3]

His primary area of expertise is intellectual property rights. He was admitted to the IP Hall of Fame in 2006.[4] He was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in IP award by MIP in 2012.[5] 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.[6] 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).[7]

He retired from the Court of Appeal in March 2011 (acknowledged in a valedictory address[8] before a court-room packed with well-wishers) to take up his current position as the Sir Hugh Laddie Chair in Intellectual Property Law at University College London.[9] However, in accordance with 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 at 8 New Square Chambers.[10]

In 2018, Jacob took up the post of a Justice at the Astana International Financial Centre in the capital of Kazakhstan.[11]