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James Mellor read engineering and then production engineering at King’s College Cambridge, with spells of work in Somalia, the Congo, Germany, France and Iraq before returning to King’s in 1984/5 to do the six core subjects in law.  He was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in June 1986.  After pupillage with Michael Briggs and John Baldwin, he secured a tenancy in the IP Chambers of Thomas Blanco-White QC, then at Francis Taylor Building.  Chambers moved to 8, New Square, Lincoln’s Inn in 1992.  James took silk in 2006 and became Head of Chambers in March 2018.  He was appointed an Appointed Person for Trade Marks and Designs in 2015, a Deputy High Court Judge in 2020 and to the High Court bench on 8th February 2021, being sworn in online, as one of the specialist Judges in the Patents Court.  James is currently the Judge in charge of the Shorter Trials Scheme.

Outside work, James is a keen windsurfer, skier and mountain biker, with his three sons only being interested in the latter two sports.

His Honour Judge Hacon was called to the Bar on in 1979. He has been the Presiding Judge of the IPEC from its creation in 2013.

Lord Justice Arnold was born in Chelmsford and spent his childhood in North London. Educated at Highgate School he then read Chemistry before training as a barrister, specialising in intellectual property law and allied fields, particularly entertainment and media law and ICT law.

Called to the Bar in 1985, he was appointed to the High Court, Chancery Division in October 2008 and was appointed to be Judge in Charge of the Patents Court in April 2013. In March 2016 he was appointed as an External Member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office.

As a judge he has continued to specialise in intellectual property and in 2017 was made an honorary Doctor of Law by the University of Westminster. Outside his judicial role, he enjoys cooking, walking in Suffolk and watching cricket. He has contributed to a number of publications, including as the author of Performers’ Rights (5th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2015), the editor of the Halsbury’s Laws of England title Trade Marks and Trade Names (5th ed, Butterworths, 2014) and acted as editor of Entertainment and Media Law Reports from 1993 to 2004 inclusive.

Lord Justice Colin Birss was called to the Bar in 1990 and practised in intellectual property law. He was Standing Counsel for the Comptroller 2003-2008. In 2008 he took silk and also became Deputy Chair of the Copyright Tribunal. In 2010 he was appointed as a Specialist Circuit Judge sitting in the Patents County Court (now IPEC). In 2013 he was appointed to the High Court, Chancery Division. He served as Supervising Judge for the Business and Property Courts on the Midlands, Western and Wales Circuits from 2017-2019 and in 2019 became Judge in Charge of the Patents Court.

He is an independent judicial member of the EPO Boards of Appeal Committee, serves on the Advisory Board of Judges for the WIPO Judicial Institute, is General Editor of Terrell on the Law of Patents, and is a Council member of the UK Foundation for Science and Technology.

He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal on 25 January 2021 and Deputy Head of Civil Justice from 11 January 2021.

Richard Meade went to William Ellis School, a comprehensive school in North London, and then studied law at University College, Oxford, graduating in 1988.

After working in the IT industry, he was called to the Bar (Lincoln’s Inn) in 1991, joining 8 New Square in 1992 after pupillage there, including with David (later Lord) Kitchin. He specialised in intellectual property, and became a Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) in 2008.

He became a Recorder in 2009 and Deputy High Court Judge in 2010. He was appointed a High Court Judge of the Chancery Division in September 2020, and was judge in charge of the Patents Court and of Intellectual property from March 2021 until 2026. As well as the Chancery Division he sat as chair in cases in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

His appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal was announced in June 2026.