Judges in Dialogue: Intellectual Property Law

We are starting our ‘Judges in Dialogue’ series this academic year with a panel dedicated to intellectual property law. Judge Spineanu-Matei from the Court of Justice of the European Union and Lord Justice Arnold from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales will be debating current issues of common EU-UK interest around trade marks.

This event is part of our Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on the Next Generation of EU-UK relations.

Judge Spineanu-Matei
The Court of Justice of the European Union 

Octavia Spineanu-Matei obtained her law degree in 1990 and started her professional career as a judge at one of the district courts in Bucharest on 1 January 1991. From 1996 to 1999, she was a judge at the Tribunal of the same city and from 1999 to 2005, she served at the Court of Appeal Bucharest; she was the president of the civil section in both courts from 1997 to 2003. She was appointed as a judge at the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania – Civil and Intellectual Property Section in 2006.

From 2006 to 2016, Ms. Spineanu-Matei served also as an External Member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office in Munich, Germany.

Since 1997, she dedicated herself to both the initial and the continuous training of Romanian judges and prosecutors at the National Institute of the Magistracy where she was a member of the Scientific Council and then, from 2011 to 2016, a director.

Octavia Spineanu-Matei was appointed as a judge at the General Court of the European Union on 19 September 2016. She served at the General Court for five years before being appointed as a judge at the Court of Justice on 7 October 2021.

Lord Justice Arnold
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales

Richard Arnold read Chemistry at the University of Oxford before being called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1985. He specialised in intellectual property law and became a QC in 2000. He was a Judge of the High Court, Chancery Division from October 2008 to September 2019 and Judge in Charge of the Patents Court from April 2013 to September 2019. He has been an External Member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office since March 2016. He has been a Judge of the Court of Appeal since October 2019. He is the author of Performers’ Rights (6^th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2021), the editor of the Halsbury’s Laws of England title Trade Marks and Trade Names (5^th ed, Butterworths, 2014), an editor of Dicey, Morris and Collins on The Conflict of Laws (16^th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2022) and has published numerous articles.

Chair: Prof. Phillip Johnson, King's College London

Phillip Johnson is [or will be soon] a Professor of Law at King's College London. He has published extensively on intellectual property law and is the editor of the Intellectual Property Quarter. He also sits as an Appointed Person hearing trade mark appeals from the Intellectual Property Office.

Join us after for a light lunch prior to the event which will then be followed by coffee.

This is a free event. Tickets will be available on Monday 11 August, and this page will be updated with booking details then.

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