Julian Heathcote Hobbins – General Counsel

Educated at The University of Kent and The College of Law, Julian Heathcote Hobbins is The Federation’s General Counsel. Prior to joining FAST in July 2001, Julian qualified as a solicitor and has experience in intellectual property law including working at City law firm Theodore Goddard (now Addleshaw Goddard) on Anti Copying In Design (ACID) matters.

Julian is responsible for The Federation’s Legal Affairs Team dealing with enforcement activities and Federation policy objectives which centre on maintaining the robust IP regime which underpins the success of the software industry with regular engagement with UKIPO (DIUS), BERR and the MOJ.

Julian is Deputy Chairman of the Federation’s Legal Advisory Group (FLAG) which has been running for 21 years and now includes 30 leading law firms. FLAG meets a number of times each year with Julian proposing the Agenda. Julian has assisted law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations including overseeing the securing of evidence for warrants plus The Federation’s Operation Red where police conducted a raid, made arrests and seized evidence following allegations of code theft. On civil matters, work has included managing the application to Court under the Norwich Pharmacal principle for disclosure of details in relation to unlawful peer to peer filing sharing in The Federation’s Operation Tracker.

Julian advises the Federation on legal matters, which are often inventive in nature, for example on the implementation by Trading Standards of their duties under Section 107A CDPA 1988 in the user environment.

Julian represents The Federation on the CBI IP and the Alliance Against IP Theft lawyers’ committees.

As a previous convenor of the Internet Enforcement Group (IEG), Julian has cyber-pirate investigative experience including tracing and website removal using specialist software and was involved in the launch of ReportIT, a unique browser based plug-in which allows the automatic reporting of pirate websites.

Julian has a particular interest in the legislation relating to software, e-mail and Internet law (including Open Source and data leakage) with recent focus centered around Representative Rights under Article 4 of the Enforcement Directive and preparing numerous responses to Government on relevant consultations, for example, under the seminal Gowers Review of Intellectual Property.

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