HH Judge Michael Fysh QC, SC

His Honour Michael Fysh QC, SC

A Brief Career History

Michael Fysh was born in the USA where his early education was undertaken. His later education was undertaken in England. He is a British national. After a year at Grenoble University (France), he read Natural Sciences (Chemistry) at Oxford (BA 1962, MA 1969). He is fluent in French.

Professional career

Michael Fysh was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1963 and for some 25 years practised as a barrister in the field of Intellectual Property in England and Ireland. He was appointed QC in 1989, QC in Northern Ireland (1990), SC in Trinidad & Tobago (1990) and SC in Dublin in 1994 (where he was a subscribing member of the Bar Library for many years). Mr Fysh has also practised extensively in Commonwealth countries having been called to the Bar in New South Wales and admitted to practise as an advocate in both India and Pakistan. He has acted as an arbitrator and has lectured extensively for inter alia WIPO, Geneva, EPO, OHIM and the UK Foreign Office. He also participates from time to time in judicial training at the Indian Institute of Judicial Studies, Bhopal.

He was author of Russell-Clarke on Registered Designs (5th Edn.) and for over 20 years was editor of the specialist Reports of Patent Cases and Fleet Street Reports. He was author of The Spycatcher Cases (The European Law Centre 1989), The IP Citator (Sweet & Maxwell 1982 and continuing) and is Editor of Butterworth’s Modern Law of Patents (2005 and 2010). He has contributed articles to both British and overseas legal journals.

Michael Fysh served on the International Relations Committee of the Bar Council for some years, visiting the then newly-emergent states of Eastern Europe on its behalf. He was a founder of BELLA, a group which furthers legal co-operation with the Baltic States.

He became head of the Intellectual Property chambers at 8 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn in 1993 succeeding Thomas Blanco-White QC and Robin (later, Lord Justice) Jacob QC in that position.

Judicial career

In 1999 Michael Fysh was appointed a Deputy High Court judge (Chancery Division) and later, in 2001, he was appointed Senior Circuit Judge having responsibility for the Patents County Court in England and Wales. He also became a judge of the Technology and Construction Court.

In 2005, he was appointed Chairman of the UK Copyright Tribunal.

1 Academic matters

Michael Fysh received an Honorary Doctorate in Laws from the University of Wolverhampton in 2007 in recognition of his work at the Patents County Court. He also became a fellow of the Institute of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Oxford in 2010. He is currently a visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of IP Law, New Delhi. In April 2012, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys in London.

Mediation

In 2010, Michael Fysh retired as both as a Judge and as Chair of the UK Copyright Tribunal - though he remains a Deputy Judge. He is now engaged in mediation and opinion work having re-joined his former Chambers1 for these purposes, together with academic, lecturing and court work overseas – principally in the field of Intellectual Property.

Michael Fysh became an accredited CEDR mediator in 2011 and has also attended the WIPO mediation course in Geneva. In July 2011, he was appointed President of the UK Chapter of GEMME2, the international association of judges and retired judges who are interested in promoting mediation as a means of dispute resolution. In April 2012, he was elected to the Board of GEMME.

In April 2014, Michael Fysh was invited to join the team drafting the rules of operation of the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre under the Agreement for a Unified Patent Court [see Art 35].

General

Michael Fysh’s interests range from travel, bird-watching, music and forestry to the customary laws of the Channel Islands. He is married with three (grown-up) children and divides his time between London and South-West France.

London. April 2014

1 8 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London WC2A 3QP 2 Groupement Européen des Magistrats pour la Médiation, Paris