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The Function of a Trade Mark: Hugh Laddie and the European Court of Justice
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- By The Rt Hon Lord Leonard Hoffmann, Queen Mary University of London
- Edited by Robin Jacob
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- Book:
- The Sir Hugh Laddie Lectures
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 09 November 2019
- Print publication:
- 01 July 2019, pp 19-36
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Summary
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Professor Dame Hazel Genn Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Dean of the Faculty of Laws at UCL. It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to the Faculty's inaugural Sir Hugh Laddie Annual Lecture to be delivered this evening by Lord Hoffmann. I am going to hand over to our President and Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, in a moment. He is going to preside over the proceedings, but I want to say a few brief words of introduction myself.
We have a fantastic audience here this evening. We have a wide variety of people with us – the judiciary, policymakers, people from private practice, in-house lawyers and academics. This is a fitting tribute to a most sorely missed colleague and a reflection of what a towering presence Hugh was in the field of intellectual property. Equally importantly, it is a reflection of what a wonderful person he was and the impact he made on those who knew him. The Faculty of Laws at UCL has established this annual series to commemorate Hugh's contribution to the Faculty and to the development of IP at UCL. In fact, this evening's lecture was arranged by Hugh. Hugh had had the idea of organising a series of annual lectures on intellectual property, and last year he booked this date and Lord Hoffmann to speak this evening. After the loss of Hugh, the Faculty wanted to ensure that Hugh's vision was realised, and, as a lasting memory to Hugh, we have named the series after him.
I am pleased to welcome you all this evening and give the Faculty's special thanks to the sponsors of IBIL for continuing to support its work, and to Ilanah Fhima Simon and Veronica Barresi for carrying on Hugh's work. I am delighted also that Lady Stecia Laddie and James Laddie are here this evening, and now I hand over to the Provost Professor Malcolm Grant, who will introduce the Chair and speaker.
Professor Malcolm Grant Thank you very much, Hazel. When Hugh resolved to step down from the Bench in 2005, it coincided with an initiative that we had at UCL to establish a new post in intellectual property.
Foreword
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- By Leonard Hoffmann, House of Lords
- Edited by David Vaver, University of Oxford, Lionel Bently, University of Cambridge
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- Book:
- Intellectual Property in the New Millennium
- Published online:
- 25 May 2010
- Print publication:
- 14 October 2004, pp xi-xi
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Summary
Lord Mustill once observed that ‘some of the most penetrating legal minds, both on and off the bench, have directed themselves to the evolution of patent law’ (Genentech Inc's Patent [1989] RPC147, 258). He put this down to the fact that ‘the industrial revolution happened where and when it did’, or, putting the matter another way, the tendency for brains to follow money. Bill Cornish's contribution to the development of patent law (and intellectual property law generally) certainly supports the first proposition, although (academic salaries being what they are) I am not sure that it supports the second. At any rate, whatever the motivation, he has been one of the small band of brilliant academic intellectual property lawyers who have made the subject a fascinating and demanding branch of study.
Bill's contribution has been remarkable not only for the penetration on which Lord Mustill remarked, for the breadth of his learning (demonstrating that a taste for the history of the subject is never a disadvantage in understanding the present law), and for its easy lucidity, but also for the wry irony (one can almost see the slight lift of the Australian eyebrows) which permeates the work and makes it such fun to read. Occasionally one feels that a concession to academic propriety has driven him to decide that the better jokes should be kept in the footnotes and not allowed to break out into the text, but one way or another solemnity is kept at bay.