Mr Justice Colin Birss
High Court Chancery Division,
Sir Colin Birss read Natural Sciences (Metallurgy and Materials Science) at Downing College, Cambridge, graduating in 1986. After a period programming computers, he was called to the Bar in 1990 and built up a successful practice as a barrister in intellectual property law representing clients both before the English courts and the EPO. As well as being instructed by firms of solicitors, he was instructed directly by a number of firms of patent attorneys and by the in-house patent departments of a number of major life science organisations. Colin was appointed Standing Counsel for the Comptroller General of Patents, Trade Marks and Designs in 2003 and took silk in 2008. In 2010 he left the Bar to become the new judge of the Patents County Court and Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal. His appointment to the PCC coincided with the introduction of new procedural rules in the Patents County Court in order to streamline the procedure. In 2013 he was appointed as a Judge of the High Court Chancery Division.