Colin Birss, elder son of Davina and Ian Birss of Largs, has been installed as a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division of the English Law Courts.

Colin, and his brother Stephen, were both born in Thurso, when Ian was at Dounreay nuclear station.

After a few years in Seascale in West Cumbria, the family moved to Largs when Ian came up to assist SSEB at Hunterston 'B' Power Station.

Both boys went to Largs Primary school, now Kelburn Primary, followed by Largs Academy, which had not long been upgraded to a full six year secondary school.

After taking Highers, Colin went to Lancaster Grammar School where he did English 'A' Levels and won an exhibition to Downing College, Cambridge University.

He graduated in Natural Sciences in 1986 and worked for two years with accountants Arthur Anderson. He then decided to change to law and attended London University to become a barrister.

He joined a set of Chambers in London who specialise in Intellectual Property, a catch-all title for topics such as Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Design. He worked his way up the ladder, earning a reputation as a formidable advocate. In 2003 he became a Treasury Barrister, that is, in addition to his other work, he took cases on behalf of the Government. He became a Queen's Counsel in 2008.

Three years later an opportunity arose to become a Special Circuit Judge in the Patents Court and Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal. The Court had just been revised to make it easier for small and medium sized companies to challenge the bigger fish for patent infringement and other related problems. Court time would be quite short, often only one or two days and costs would be limited to �50,000. In the short time Colin has done this job he has doubled the number of cases that come to the Court.

In one case he acquired some publicity over a row between the big electronic giants, US based Apple and South Korea's Samsung. Apple had accused Samsung of breach of copyright with their Tablet - it was just a copy of Apple's IPad. Colin decided in his wisdom that there could be no mistaking the Samsung product for Apple's because Samsung's was not "cool" and so found against Apple. His judgement was upheld in the Court of Appeal.

He earned the praise of the Editor of an Intellectual Property journal who said he'd been trying for years to tell people what IP was all about and Colin had done it with one small four letter word because the broadsheets and tabloids had got hold of the story!

His promotion to the High Court took place in the Courts of Justice in London, presided over by the Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales, Lord Judge, in the presence of the Master of the Rolls, the Head of Chancery Division, his family and a large turnout of his colleagues. He will be known as His Lordship Judge Colin Birss and is currently the youngest High Court Judge in England and Wales. He is now waiting for a call from Buckingham Palace to be invested with a knighthood.