His appointment, which had been widely expected, fills a vacancy which arose when Birss was appointed a judge of the High Court in May this year.
Hacon is a member of the IP specialist chambers 11 South Square, and has experience in patent cases as well as those involving other IP rights.
He is aged 57 and was called to the bar in 1979 but was not a Queen’s Counsel. He takes up his new post on December 3.
Among the cases he has worked on recently are Starbucks v BSkyB (trade marks), Apple v Samsung (designs) and Lumos Skincare v Sweet Squared (passing off).
The announcement does not say if Hacon has been appointed chair of the Copyright Tribunal, a post that has lately also been held by the judge of the PCC.
The IPEC handles lower-value or less complex IP cases in England and Wales and was profiled in Managing IP's April 2013 issue ("How the PCC became a global player").
