Thomas Blanco White

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Wikipedia

Thomas Blanco White
Born(1915-01-19)19 January 1915
Kensington, London
Died12 January 2006(2006-01-12) (aged 90)
EducationTrinity College, Cambridge
Parent(s)George Rivers Blanco White and Amber Reeves
RelativesJustin Blanco White (sister)
Maud Pember Reeves (grandmother)
William Pember Reeves (grandfather)
Conrad Waddington (brother-in-law)
Dusa McDuff (niece)
Caroline Humphrey (niece)
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
BranchAir Force
Service years1940-1946
ConflictsWorld War II

Thomas Anthony Blanco White QC (19 January 1915 – 12 January 2006) was a British barrister specializing in patent law.[1]

He was described in his Times obituary as "the best intellectual property lawyer to have practised in England since Fletcher Moulton" and "cultured, straight-talking lawyer who was without peer on intellectual property issues."[2]

Early life and family

Born in Kensington, White was the son of the barrister George Rivers Blanco White and his wife the feminist writer, scholar, and campaigner Amber Reeves, daughter of William Pember Reeves and his wife Maud Pember Reeves.[3] His sister, Margaret Justin Blanco White, was an architect, and through her his brother-in-law was the biologist Conrad Hal Waddington - their daughters, his nieces, are the anthropologist Caroline Humphrey and the mathematician Dusa McDuff.[4]

He was educated at University College School and Gresham's School, before going to his father's alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read physics. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1937.[1]

Career

Blanco White served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from 1940 to 1946 (service No. 80865), working on the then-new field of radar, primarily in India and Ceylon.[5]

After the Second World War, he returned to the bar, becoming a specialist in intellectual property law. He was made Queen's Counsel in 1969.[2]

Personal life

In 1950, Blanco White married Anne Katherine Ironside-Smith; they had two sons and one daughter.[1]

Publications

His textbook Patents for Inventions (1962) was the leading reference work in its day.[5][6]

Recognition

Blanco White was inducted into the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame in 2010.[7]

An intellectual property library in Delhi has been named for him.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 BLANCO WHITE, Thomas Anthony", Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 13 Jan 2015
  2. 1 2 "Thomas Blanco White". The Times. 11 February 2006. p. 75.
  3. ↑ "White, Amber Blanco [née Amber Reeves] (1887–1981), writer and civil servant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63956. Retrieved 18 January 2024. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ Darling, Elizabeth (2019). "White [married name Waddington], (Margaret) Justin Blanco (1911–2001), architect". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112261. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 Fysh, Judge (13 January 2006). "Commemoration Speech on the Life and Death of Thomas Blanco White QC". RPC (Reports of Patents, Design, and Trademark Cases). 123 (14). Oxford Journals: 480–481. doi:10.1093/rpc/123.14.480.
  6. ↑ White, Thomas Anthony Blanco. Patents for inventions, and the registration of industrial designs. Stevens, 1962.
  7. ↑ "Thomas Blanco White". iphalloffame.com, developed by Intellectual Asset Management magazine.