Michael Bloch (barrister)

Michael Gordon Bloch QC (born 18 October 1951) is a British barrister, a member of Blackstone Chambers.

For the historian and author, see Michael Bloch.

Life

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]

Notable cases

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 the 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]

References

1. "BLOCH Michael G / PLATZKY" in Register of Births for Hampstead Registration District, vol. 5c (1951), p. 997
2. "Michael Gordon BLOCH" in Debrett's People of Today, accessed 18 August 2014
3. "BLOCH, Michael Gordon", in Who's Who 2014 (A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014)
4. Register of Marriages for Wandsworth Registration District, volume 15 (1975), p. 1384
5. Lady CAMILLA BINGHAM Barrister (Daughter of 7th Earl of Lucan, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances nearly 24 years ago) With her new husband MICHAEL BLOCH QC Barrister at diomedia.com, accessed 25 February 2018
6. Kate Beioley, Michael Bloch QC quits Wilberforce for Blackstone Chambers at thelawyer.com dated 25 October 2013, accessed 20 March 2018
7. Lucan, Earl of (I, 1795) at cracroftspeerage.co.uk, accessed 25 February 2018
8. City of Moscow v. Bankers Trust at onlinedmc.co.uk, accessed 19 March 2019
9. Costume designer strikes back in Star Wars IP rights test case in The Lawyer dated 7 April 2008, accessed 20 March 2018
10. Lucasfilm Limited and others (Appellants) v Ainsworth and another (Respondents) at supremecourt.uk/cases, accessed 19 March 2019
11. Cosmetic Warriors Ltd v Amazon.co.uk Ltd and Amazon EU SARL, [2014] EWHC 181 (Ch) at twobirds.com, accessed 8 April 2020
12. Gloucester Place Music Ltd v Simon Le Bon & Ors [2016] EWHC 3091 (Ch), dated 5 December 2016, accessed 19 March 2019

External links

• Michael Bloch QC at Blackstonechambers.com