Ireland and the Unified Patent Court.

Although the Republic of Ireland signed the Unified Patent Court (UPC) agreement in 2013, the required referendum to alter the Irish constitution and ratify the UPC has yet to take place. The Irish government announced in June 2022 that a referendum is expected to take place in 2023 or 2024.


How would Ireland participate in the UPC, specifically? 

As outlined in our article on the structure of the UPC, the Court of First Instance comprises local and central divisions, with local divisions deciding on infringement matters in the respective member states. The Irish government announced in 2014 their intention to host a local division in Ireland, should the country ratify the UPC following the aforementioned referendum-in-waiting. An Irish local division would provide a useful means of access to the UP system for patentees hailing from the United States, the United Kingdom (UK) and other English-speaking jurisdictions.

The as-yet-undecided Life Sciences seat for the Central Division is also a possibility for Ireland, though the Irish government has not yet submitted a bid for this seat. The main seat for the Central Division is in Paris, with an additional seat in Munich dealing with mechanical engineering patents in particular. The Central Divisions will be responsible for patent revocation claims under the UP system.


Why is Ireland's participation significant? 

Since the UK withdrew from the UPC agreement and will not fall under the Unified Court’s jurisdiction, Ireland is expected to be the only English-speaking and only common law jurisdiction under the UPC. Patentees from the United States and the UK seeking to gauge the predictability of UPC judges ought therefore to pay close attention to Ireland’s potential influence over the development of UPC case law in-line with the common law tradition. Moreover, since the Court of Appeal is to hear cases in the language of the Court of First Instance, the use of an Irish local division could make proceedings more accessible for English-speaking patentees.

Whilst no movement is on the immediate horizon, Ireland’s expected future role in the UPC system will be significant for English-speaking patentees and those from common law jurisdictions. FRKelly is well positioned for Ireland’s introduction to the UP system with offices in both Dublin and Cork, and qualified UPC litigators at the ready. The reader is encouraged to watch this space for further updates on Ireland’s involvement in the UPC.


This article continues FRKelly's series on the upcoming Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court. For more details, check out the following articles:  

1. What is a Unitary Patent?

2. What is the Unified Patent Court?  

3. How to Apply for a Unitary Patent

4. UPC Structure

5. Register for Unitary Patent Protection

6. UPC Operations

7. What Rights Are Afforded by a Unitary Patent? 

8. UPC Opt-Out

9. Opposition, Appeals and Validity of Unitary Patents

10. Will the Unified Patent Court Affect SPCs?

11. Unitary Patent Costs

12. UPC Infringement Actions

13. Ireland and the Unified Patent Court

14. No More Fooling Around: April 1st is UPC Launch Date

15. Unified Patent Court Costs

16. Validity Actions at the UPC

17. Assignments and Licenses Under the Unitary Patent System

18.  The UK and the Unified Patent Court

19.  Delay to Start of UPC Sunrise Period 

20. EPO Plans Unchanged by UPC Delay

21. What to do to get ready for the Unitary Patent and UPC

Related

Privacy Settings

Essential
Privacy Settings
Saves the current privacy settings.
Retention period: This cookie will remain for 30 days.
PHP SESSION ID
Saves the current PHP session.
Retention period: This cookie will only remain for the current browser session.
Performance and Analytics Cookies
These technologies allow us to analyze website usage in order to measure and improve performance.
Google Analytics
This is a web analytics service. It allows the user to measure advertising ROI, track flash, video and social networking sites and applications.
Provider: Google Ireland Limited - Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland
Technical name: _ga,_gat_gtag_UA_120928533_6,_gid
Show more details

Data Purposes

This list represents the purposes of the data collection and processing.
- Marketing
- Analytics

Technologies Used

- Cookies
- Pixel

Data Collected

This list represents all (personal) data that is collected by or through the use of this service.

- App updates
- Click path
- Date and time of visit
- Device information
- Downloads
- Flash version
- Location information
- IP address
- JavaScript support
- Pages visited
- Purchase activity
- Referrer URL
- Usage data
- Widget interactions
- Browser information

Legal Basis

In the following the required legal basis for the processing of data is listed.

- Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. a GDPR

Location of Processing

- European Union

Retention Period

The retention period is the time span the collected data is saved for the processing purposes. The data needs to be deleted as soon as it is no longer needed for the stated processing purposes.
The Retention Period depends on the type of the saved data. Each client can choose how long Google Analytics retains data before automatically deleting it.
Data Recipients

- Google Ireland Limited, Alphabet Inc., Google LLC

Data Protection Officer of Processing Company

Below you can find the email address of the data protection officer of the processing company.

https://support.google.com/policies/contact/general_privacy_form

Transfer to Third Countries

This service may forward the collected data to a different country. Please note that this service might transfer the data outside of the EU/EEA and to a country without the required data protection standards. If the data is transferred to the US, there is a risk that your data can be processed by US authorities, for control and surveillance measures, possibly without legal remedies. Below you can find a list of countries to which the data is being transferred. This can be for different reasons like storing or processing.

United States of America,Singapore,Chile,Taiwan

Click here to read the privacy policy of the data processor https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Click here to opt out from this processor across all domains https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de

Click here to read the cookie policy of the data processor https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en

Storage Information

Below you can see the longest potential duration for storage on a device, as set when using the cookie method of storage and if there are any other methods used.

- Maximum age of cookie storage: 2 years

  Accept all
Please upgrade your browser. This website is not compatible with Internet Explorer.