Chambers was founded in 1923 by Sir Stafford Cripps KC. It celebrates its centenary in 2023.

Chambers has a rich history in the field of intellectual property having been involved in intellectual property cases since its foundation.

From modest numbers in its early days, chambers has grown in line with the growth in intellectual property litigation and now has 8 King’s Counsel (1 Honorary), 13 juniors and one former Court of Appeal Judge as its members. It also includes a leading Professor in IP law.

Sir Stafford Cripps KC, the founding Head of Chambers, was a celebrated barrister and politician of his age and went on to become Solicitor-General in the 1930s in the second Labour government. He was a renowned patent-lawyer, having been educated as a chemist, and appeared in a number of the leading patent disputes of the 1920s and 1930s. His practice also extended to taking on a number of causes celebres while in practice and in 1934 he acted pro bono for the miners (against Hartley Shawcross who appeared for the mine owners) in the Inquiry into the Gresford Colliery Disaster, one of Britain’s worst mining disasters. He went on to become Chancellor of the Exchequer in the late 1940s.

Sir Lionel Heald QC succeeded Sir Stafford as Head of Chambers. He too was a leading patent barrister appearing in many renowned decisions which remain familiar to intellectual property practitioners to this day: General Tire & Rubber Co. v Firestone Tyre & Rubber Co. Ltd and Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing v Bondina. He was also a formidable politician over a 20-year political career and was Attorney-General in the post-war Churchill cabinet from 1951 to 1954.

Sir Patrick Graham was Head of Chambers until his elevation to the Bench in 1969 as the specialist High Court Patents Judge, when he was succeeded by Geoffrey Everington QC. Sir Patrick was the specialist Patents Judge until 1981. Both at the bar and on the bench Sir Patrick was deeply involved in the administration of justice relating to patents: together with Sir John Whitford, the other specialist Patents Judge of the time, he gave influential evidence to the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the extension of Legal Aid to tribunal proceedings in 1973.

Geoffrey Everington QC, Head of Chambers until his death in 1982, was a member of the Banks Committee set up to examine the patent system under the chairmanship of M.A.L. Banks, whose 1970 Report was influential in the United Kingdom’s adoption of the patent reforms in the Patents Act 1977. Under Geoffrey Everington, Chambers moved in 1975 from its former home in Queen Elizabeth Building to its present location at 11 South Square.

Stephen Gratwick QC, who succeeded Geoffrey Everington QC as Head of Chambers, was one of the foremost intellectual property advocates of his generation. When war broke out between Polaroid and Kodak over Kodak’s move into the one-step photography market in the late 1970s, it was to Stephen Gratwick that Kodak turned for its leading counsel. Polaroid was represented by Geoffrey Everington QC.

In more recent times, Head of Chambers, Sir Christopher Floyd PC, was appointed to the Chancery Division (to succeed Sir Nicholas Pumfrey) in November 2007 and in 2012 he was elevated to the Court of Appeal. Sir Christopher returned to 11 South Square in 2021 following his retirement from the Court of Appeal.

Michael Silverleaf KC, Head of Chambers from 2007 to 2016, was Treasury Junior from 1991 to 1996, having succeeded Sir Nicholas Pumfrey, who held the post of Treasury Junior from 1987 to 1990. He has been succeeded in that post (now referred to as Standing Counsel for the Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks) by Brian Nicholson KC (who was appointed between 2014-2019) and Anna Edwards-Stuart (who has held the appointment since 2019).

The current Head of Chambers is Iain Purvis KC. He sits as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Chancery Division including the Patents Court, and a Civil Recorder and as a Judge of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court. He is an Appointed Person, hearing appeals from decisions of the UK Intellectual Property Office.

Judicial appointments

Many members of chambers have gone on to hold judicial office.

Peter Ford was the first Judge of the Patents County Court, appointed in 1990.

The late Lord Justice Pumfrey was a member of chambers from 1975 to 1997.  He was appointed in 1997 to the Chancery Division of the High Court, subsequently becoming the senior specialist Patents Judge and, in November 2007, the first member of Chambers to be appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal.

Sir Christopher Floyd PC was a member of chambers from 1975 until his appointment to the Chancery Division in 2007, having been Head of Chambers from 1994 to 2007. Sir Christopher was later appointed to the Court of Appeal as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013. He retired from the bench in 2021.

Sir Richard Arnold PC was appointed to the Chancery Division in October 2008 becoming the 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. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in October 2019.

His Honour Judge Hacon continued chambers’ involvement in the IP specialist courts having been appointed as the first presiding Judge of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (the successor of the Patents County Court) in December 2013.

The much-respected and much-missed late Sir Henry Carr was appointed as a Judge of the High Court in 2015 and sat frequently in the Patents Court including on landmark decisions concerning pharmaceutical patents. He was recognised as one of the finest IP minds in the country.

Members of chambers have been appointed to the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office and as far afield as the High Kong Court of Appeal.

Senior clerks

One of chambers’ first senior clerks was Ernest Foot in the 1930s. He was succeeded by Walter Boulton, and in turn by Roy Nicholls. Frances Smith, Rochelle Haring and Martyn Nicholls have since all held or shared that post. Our present senior clerk is Ashley Carr who has been at 11 South Square for over 20 years.