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Obituary: Sir Hugh Laddie

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

The IPKat is deeply saddened to record the death of his friend Sir Hugh Laddie, who was laid to rest at mid-day today in Cheshunt Cemetery, to the north of London. Hugh had been ill for some time, though he continued to participate in IP affairs the month of his death, chairing the stellar Patent Enforcement Seminar that owed so much to his inspiration and efforts.

Born in April 1946, Hugh studied at Aldenham School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, following which he read for the Bar. After a highly successful quarter of a century at the Intellectual Property bar, Hugh was appointed as a Patents Court judge in April 1995, a position he held for ten years before surprising his friends and admirers by resigning in order to become a consultant to leading IP practice Willoughby & Partners (now Rouse) and to plunge himself into a new career just over two years ago as Professor of Intellectual Property Law at University College London. There he founded the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL).

Hugh's contributions to the intellectual property community, both in the UK and beyond, were immeasurable. As a co-author (with Peter Prescott and Mary Vitoria) of the much-loved, indeed much-cited, Modern Law of Copyright and Designs, he raised the bar for subsequent IP practitioners' texts with his perceptive and often pungent comments and his preparedness to come off the fence and give a gloriously honest opinion. His references of preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice demonstrated, among other things, how effectively he could construct a set of questions in order to sharpen the minds of jurists in Luxembourg (as in Zino Davidoff v A&G) and how boldly (in Arsenal v Reed) he could resist their responses when it seemed to them that the senior European court had usurped his own judicial functions as a trial judge. His contributions to patent law jurisprudence would fill a book by themselves.

Beyond the bench, Hugh was a warm and sharing individual. He enjoyed the hurly-burly of the Fordham IP Conferences in New York, where he could exchange arguments, ancedotes and wisdom with fellow-judges, practitioners and students on level terms. A keen supporter of the Intellectual Property Institute, his infectious enthusiasm and joy in participation provided a role model for many others. It was no accident that, in September last year, he was inducted to the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame, an honour which he did not seek but which, by common consent, he thoroughly deserved.

The IPKat is sure that those many readers of this weblog who knew Hugh, whether through crossing swords with him, being judged by him, working with him or merely enjoying his company over a pleasant meal, will join him in expressing his sincerest condolences to Hugh's family and in praying that they will be spared all further sorrow. We shall all miss him very much.

Full post as published by IPKat on November 30, 2008 (boomark / email).