Having acquired an enviable international reputation in intellectual property law at the Bar, Nicholas Pumfrey built up an excellent reputation on the Bench. Among barristers and solicitors, he was renowned as a careful and effective trial judge. He was a safe pair of hands in any area of law but was a particular expert in intellectual property law, on which he tried a number of long and demanding cases. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal at the young age of 56, less than two months before his death.

Nicholas Richard Pumfrey was brought up in Bristol, where his father was a solicitor. His education after the age of 12 was in Oxford, first at St Edward's School, and then at St Edmund Hall. He graduated in physics in 1972, and two years later took a second degree in law. He never lost his interest in science, and was always quietly proud of his competence in that area. He taught himself how to use a computer over two months in the late 1970s, and on it created an entire font to his own design, which he then used for his written work. After becoming a judge, he sat on many committees relating to IT and the courts.

He qualified as a barrister in 1975, and, after doing pupillage in Chancery chambers, his natural home given his scientific bent was the intellectual property bar. He duly joined chambers specialising in patents, trade marks, copyright, designs and passing off, at 11 South Square, Gray's Inn. Pumfrey quickly established himself as a very able barrister. He advanced quickly through the ranks, being appointed junior counsel to the Treasury in patent matters, a post which he held from 1987 until 1990, when he became Queen's Counsel.

Unlike many, he never fell into the trap of taking on more work than he could conscientiously do. He was always well prepared and thorough. In court, he was an authoritative and imposing figure, renowned for the high quality of his arguments. He was a classic example of a barrister who had the confidence of the court.

He was not the tidiest or most organised of people, and he was always modest about his own abilities. Accordingly, when the opportunity to become head of his chambers arose, he turned it down. He continued his very successful practice as a loyal member of his chambers until he was approached by the Lord Chancellor in November 1997 to become a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division. That he was made this offer at the early age of 46 was a measure of the high esteem in which he was held.

His approach to procedural issues was indicative of the man, practical and fair rather than doctrinaire. He liked to understand the underlying technology in a patent case at the earliest possible stage, sometimes before counsel had come to grips with it. He dealt with cases carefully, and enjoyed debating the issues, and legal submissions in his court quickly developed into discussions with the judge, a genuine, if testing, pleasure for well-prepared advocates. His judgments were invariably full, clear and very carefully prepared.

In the IP field Pumfrey found himself deciding a series of complex patent disputes, where he impressed with his mastery of the technology. He tried a number of disputes involving computer architecture and microchip design which were among the most technically challenging cases to come before the Patents Court. He could also turn his hand to other technical fields such as biotechnology. He was always astute to the needs of industry. He recently tried a series of disputes as to whether certain mobile telecommunications patents were essential to the international operating standards.

Significant cases outside the field of IP also came before him. He had to resolve a dispute involving Prince Jefri, the brother of the Sultan of Brunei, concerning the extent to which accountants could act against a former client by erecting “Chinese walls” in their offices. His decision was reversed by the Court of Appeal, but reinstated by the House of Lords. In another case, he decided two important issues, the right of a shareholder to sue for loss suffered by a company, and the extent to which resolution of an earlier dispute bound connected parties, and, again, much of his decision was reversed by the Court of Appeal but was reinstated by the House of Lords. These successes were a source of real, albeit private, gratification to him.

Whatever their technical skills, men are remembered by their friends and colleagues for their personal attributes. Nicholas Pumfrey was, quite simply, a very nice man. His room in the Royal Courts of Justice was often visited by other judges who wanted to discuss cases, seek his advice, or just have a chat. He was regarded by his judicial colleagues with great affection, and was unstinting when they sought assistance on abstruse points of scientific knowledge or IP law. The announcement last July that Pumfrey was to be promoted to the Court of Appeal was greeted with universal approval, as was demonstrated by the large number of people who attended his swearing in.

In the very short period for which he sat in the Court of Appeal, he had already demonstrated that he was a very good colleague as well as being a very good judge. Few would doubt that, if his career had run its full course, he would have achieved even higher office.

Pumfrey was an enthusiastic member of Middle Temple, having been elected a Bencher on his elevation as a Judge. He served as chairman of the catering committee, appropriately for someone so interested in good food and wine. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the Inn's finance committee. He was also a familiar and popular figure at the Garrick, normally dining there once or twice a week.

He was a frequent contributor at the two major international annual IP conferences, the European Patent Judges Forum, and Fordham University Conference in New York. He regularly taught IP law to students at the Max Planck Institute, and was the first UK member of the Enlarged Board of Appeals at the European Patent Office in Munich. His international reputation in the field of IP and his good command of French mean that his future contributions to the current proposals to develop an EU-wide law on patents will be particularly sadly missed.

Pumfrey had been a keen cyclist for many years, but more recently the motorbike had monopolised his time on two wheels. He had a house on the edge of a picturesque village in Provence, where he kept bees and made his own honey, when he was not hunting for truffles; he regularly distributed both commodities among his friends. He was also an enthusiastic carpenter, and a keen and eclectic reader. Although he did not shoot, he enjoyed picking up pheasants when he went to stay with friends in Northumberland.

He was an unmistakeable large figure with a somewhat lumbering gait, a thick shock of white hair, and a benevolent expression. His geniality, approachability and wisdom made him an obvious and frequent choice for his friends as a godfather to their children. It was a role which he took seriously and was facilitated by his rapport with the young, which was in part attributable to his having retained many of the engaging aspects of his schoolboy character.

Pumfrey was a bachelor, his emotional and social needs entirely satisfied by a small circle of close friends and a wide group of friendly acquaintances. His mother and a married sister survive him.

Sir Nicholas Pumfrey, Court of Appeal judge since 2007, was born on May 22, 1951. He died of a stroke on December 24, 2007, aged 56