Colin Birss appointed chancellor of the High Court of England and Wales

In his new role as chancellor, Colin Birss will continue to hear cases both as a senior judge in the Court of Appeal and at first instance in the Chancery Division of the High Court. He will also assume leadership responsibilities for the Chancery Division, which includes the Patents Court and Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC). The Court of Appeal thus maintains two former specialist patent judges with Lord Justice Richard Arnold and Lord Justice Colin Birss.

The Chancery Division oversees several other courts and lists, including the Insolvency and Companies List, Property Trusts and Probate List, Competition List, Financial List (jointly with the Commercial Court) and Revenue List.

As part of the Business & Property Courts structure, the Chancellor holds day-to-day responsibility for B&PC operations in London and seven city centres across England and Wales, in consultation with the president of the King’s Bench Division.

Groundbreaking judgments

Birss succeeds Sir Julian Flaux, who retires in November. “This will allow for a handover period, both for the judge becoming Chancellor and for him to hand over his existing judicial leadership role as Deputy Head of Civil Justice,” a spokesperson for the Judicial Office told JUVE Patent.

Birss ranks among the most influential patent judges globally and played a vital role in creating the Unified Patent Court, for which he had applied before Brexit prevented his participation.

After practising as an intellectual property barrister, he joined the bench in 2008. The courts appointed him to the High Court in 2013, and he joined the Court of Appeal in October 2020. As a specialist IP judge, he has gained recognition for significant rulings in patent disputes over standard essential patents.

Birss was the first judge to calculate and set a global FRAND rate in the Unwired Planet vs Huawei dispute. The ruling established UK courts as a key jurisdiction for FRAND rate determination.

Recently, the Court of Appeal with Birss as presiding judge awarded Optis a higher FRAND rate in its dispute against Apple than the first-instance court had previously determined.