We are delighted to announce the launch of a brand new episode of the Copyright Waffle podcast, recorded at UCL School of Laws in January 2025. We were honoured to be joined by the Rt. Hon. Professor Sir Robin Jacob who was possibly our most distinguished guest on the podcast to date!
It was our first time interviewing a Judge and what a fascinating insight it was into the world of IP case law. Professor Jacob is a former High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales Judge. As a barrister he argued and as a judge presided over some momentous copyright and IP cases over the years including Interlego AG v Tyco Industries [1988] where he successfully argued the design of Lego bricks were not protected by copyright. He was the judge in the Court of Appeal for Hyperion Records v Dr Lionel Sawkins, another landmark case regarding copyright in unfinished musical works. And my favourite case he discusses in some detail in this podcast is where he represented Vangelis over accusations of copyright infringement when composing the music for ‘Chariots of Fire’ (EMI Music Publishing v Papathanasiou). You can read up more about this case on the Lost in Music website (created by another guest on our podcast, Simon Anderson).
Robin takes us back in time to his early days studying physics at the University of Cambridge and then law at the London School of Economics. He tells us how he first met the fellow high court judge, Professor Sir Hugh Laddie, who he cites as one of copyright heroes and who sadly passed away in 2008. He discusses his love of the football team Arsenal and his favourite cake.
We are grateful to Josh Rodda for his help in cleaning up and edit some of this podcast for us. So settle down with a nice cup of tea and your favourite cake and tune in for some Copyright Waffle!
Copyright Literacy 