This collection brings together contributions from some of the most distinguished scholars in the field of intellectual property law, that is, patents, copyright, trade marks and related rights. The possibility to assemble so impressive an array of authors in a single volume is provided by the retirement of Professor William Cornish from the Herchel Smith Chair in Intellectual Property at the University of Cambridge.

William Cornish was born and educated in South Australia. He came to the UK in 1960, initially to study for the BCL degree at Oxford, and immediately afterwards began lecturing at the London School of Economics. There he spent the bulk of his early career. After a brief interlude at Queen Mary, he was made a Professor in 1970. In 1990 Professor Cornish moved from the LSE to Cambridge University, where he became a Professor and Director of the Centre of European Legal Studies. In 1995 he was appointed the Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law.

Professor Cornish's achievements in a career which has lasted over forty years are simply too numerous to review here other than selectively and briefly. Readers wishing to gain a full appreciation are referred to his curriculum vitae, which we publish here in.

He is widely, and rightly, regarded as the father of intellectual property teaching and scholarship in the UK. In 1967, while at the LSE, he, Robin Jacob (now Jacob LJ, and a contributor to this collection) and Richard Lloyd, established the first course in Intellectual Property Law on the University of London LL.M.