Michael Gordon Bloch KC (born 18 October 1951) is a British barrister who is a member of Blackstone Chambers.
Born at Hampstead, [1] a son of the marriage of John Bloch and Thelma E. Platzky, Bloch was educated at Bedales School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA and MA, and the University of East Anglia, where he gained the degree of M.Phil. [2] He was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1979. [3]
In 1975, Bloch married firstly Caroline S. Williams, in Wandsworth. [4] They had two daughters, Susannah and Claudia Bloch. [5]
Bloch first joined the One Essex Court Chambers, [6] and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1998. [3] The same year, he married secondly Lady Camilla Bingham, a fellow barrister and one of the daughters of Lord Lucan. [7]
In September 2000, Bloch moved from One Essex Court to Wilberforce Chambers. In 2013 he resigned from there to join Blackstone Chambers, which was reported as a significant boost for Blackstone, filling a gap in commercial and arbitration law left by the departure of Thomas Beazley QC. [6]
In March 2004, Bloch appeared in the Court of Appeal representing the Bankers Trust in the case of Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow v Bankers Trust Company and International Industrial Bank, before Sir Andrew Morritt, Mance LJ and Carnwath LJ. The case was to decide whether a judgment dismissing an application to challenge an arbitration award should be published. The Court found that in general the public interest required judgments to be published, but in this instance it decided that the judgment at issue should not be. [8]
In 2008, Bloch acted for Lucasfilm in its dispute with the British engineer Andrew Ainsworth of Shepperton Design Studios over the rights to the stormtrooper helmets as used in Star Wars . [9] In 2011 this case arrived in the Supreme Court as Lucasfilm Ltd v Ainsworth, in which Bloch and Jonathan Sumption QC represented Lucasfilm. The Court decided that the Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet was not a sculpture for the purposes of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. [10]
In 2013, Bloch was leading counsel for Nestlé in its battle with Cadburys over the purple colour of its "Dairy Milk" bar wrappers. [6]
In 2014 he appeared in the High Court for Lush Cosmetics, who successfully challenged Amazon's use of the word "LUSH", their registered trade mark, as a Google Adword and for directing Amazon web customers searching for "Lush" to similar products made by competitors. John Baldwin QC, sitting as a deputy judge, held that Amazon had thereby infringed the trade mark under Directive 2008/95/EC, and that the two Amazon defendants, one incorporated in the United Kingdom and the other in Luxembourg, were jointly liable, as they had "joined together and agreed to work together in the furtherance of a common plan". [11]
In 2016, Bloch represented Simon Le Bon, Duran Duran, and other defendants in the High Court case of Gloucester Place Music Ltd v Simon Le Bon & Others, which resulted in a judgement by Mr Justice Arnold likely to have significant implications in the recorded music industry. [12]
Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, was a British judge who was successively Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord. On his death in 2010, he was described as the greatest judge of his generation. The Baroness Hale of Richmond observed that his pioneering role in the formation of the United Kingdom Supreme Court may be his most important and long-lasting legacy. The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers regarded Bingham as "one of the two great legal figures of my lifetime in the law". The Lord Hope of Craighead described Bingham as "the greatest jurist of our time".
Richard Orme Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, was a British judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1964 to 1982.
Sir Peter Winston Smith, abbreviated to Peter Smith J in judgements, is a former High Court judge who sat in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales from 5 April 2002 to 27 October 2017. He was the subject of comment and investigation in relation to his judicial behaviour in various circumstances. He retired on 28 October 2017.
Richard Mawrey, KC is a barrister and Deputy High Court Judge in the United Kingdom. He is a bencher of Gray's Inn and a member of Henderson Chambers. In his role as a judge in election cases, he has repeatedly criticised the postal voting system in the United Kingdom.
Shepperton Design Studios is an England-based manufacturer of Star Wars replica props and memorabilia that was sued by Lucasfilm for copyright infringement.
One Essex Court is a set of barristers' chambers in London, specialising in commercial litigation, which was founded in 1966. It is distinct from 1 Essex Court and Essex Court Chambers.
Alex Bailin KC is an English barrister specialising in criminal and international law, together with human rights and media law at Matrix Chambers. Bailin is also a legal writer for The Guardian, The Times and The Lawyer, among others.
Tim Owen KC, is an English barrister at Matrix Chambers. His practice spans the fields of fraud/regulatory, criminal, public, human rights, media and information, extradition/MLA, sports, asset recovery, police and civil law.
Lucasfilm Limited v Ainsworth[2011] UKSC 39 was a 2011 court ruling by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The case concerned an intellectual property dispute over the production of Lucasfilm's Stormtrooper costumes by model maker Andrew Ainsworth. Mr Ainsworth argued that the helmets, which he continues to manufacture and sell, were functional props covered only by design right legislation, as opposed to Lucasfilm's assertion that they were sculptures or art which fall under copyright law. Design right protection is retained for 15 or 10 years, whereas copyright protection in this case would last 70 years after the death of the author.
Potter v Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd, was a significant Australian court case, decided in the High Court of Australia on 20 March 1906. The case was an influential decision in Australian Private International Law which is generally regarded as based on an extension of the Moçambique rule to actions for infringement of patents.
Blackstone Chambers is a set of barristers' chambers in the Temple district of central London. Established in the 1950s, as of 2022 it had 119 tenants, of whom more than 50 are silks.
Fountain Court Chambers is a set of commercial barristers based in the Temple in London and with offices in Singapore. It has 95 full members, of whom 41 are silks. It is in the Magic Circle.
George Andrew Midsomer Leggatt, Lord Leggatt, is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the highest court of law in the United Kingdom.
Lucan is a two-part British television drama, starring Rory Kinnear, Christopher Eccleston and Catherine McCormack, portraying the disappearance in 1974 of the Earl of Lucan, following the murder of his children's nanny. Written by Jeff Pope and directed by Adrian Shergold, it was broadcast in December 2013.
The Eldon Law Scholarship is a scholarship awarded to students from the University of Oxford who wish to study for the English Bar. Applicants must either have obtained a first class honours degree in the Final Honours School, or obtained a distinction on the BCL or MJur. It is a two-year scholarship presently funded at £9,000 a year.
Lady Camilla Bloch is a British barrister.
Thomas Paul Wentworth Grant KC is an English barrister and author. He has been appointed Visiting Professor of Politics and Law at Gresham College for 2020–2021 and for 2021–2022. Grant was appointed a Visiting Professor Law at the London School of Economics in 2022.
Dame Nathalie Marie Daniella Lieven,, , known as Mrs Justice Lieven, is a Justice of the High Court of England and Wales assigned to the Family Division.
Sir Michael John Fordham,, styled The Hon. Mr Justice Fordham, is a judge of the High Court of England and Wales assigned to the King's Bench Division. He was appointed as a Justice of the High Court on 13 January 2020.