IP Hall of Fame Academy members
The IP Hall of Fame Academy comprises previous, living inductees into the IP Hall of Fame, the panellists from the 2006 IP Hall of Fame induction process and individuals who have been put forward for membership as a consequence of their acknowledged expertise in international intellectual property issues. Moving forward, people will qualify for Academy membership only if they are inducted into the IP Hall of Fame or if their names are submitted for consideration by an existing member.
The role of Academy members is to select IP Hall of Fame inductees from the nominations made by the global IP community.
Current members are (click on name for more information):
Robin Jacob
The senior patent judge in the United KingdomIP Hall of Fame inductee in 2006
The senior patent judge in the UK and one of the rare IP judicial experts in Europe. Robin Jacob's judgments are highly influential in the European arena. His major achievement as a judge in the English courts has been to streamline procedures in patent cases. This has resulted in a considerable acceleration of the procedure and a reduction in the cost. He has therefore helped to maintain the English courts as among the top IP courts in Europe, if not the world. Jacob once famously condemned his colleagues by stating that if one could bring all the experienced patent judges together, they would fit in a minibus. At the same time, he highlighted the political and economic folly of not having a centralised IP court system in Europe. More recently, he has stepped outside his usual judicial cloak and lobbied actively for the European Patent Litigation Agreement, which would centralise patent litigation for 1.6 million active patents in Europe. Diplomatically, on this occasion, he lobbied together with slightly more colleagues than would fit in a minibus.