The Irish Government's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment announced yesterday (23 January) that the Government has approved a proposal to hold a constitutional referendum in June 2024 on Ireland’s participation in the Unified Patent Court. The referendum is to be held alongside the European and local elections.

The Government has also approved the priority drafting of a Bill to give effect to the proposed constitutional amendment needed for this in readiness should the result of the referendum be in favour of joining the UPC system, and the press release stated that the Minister hoped to obtain approval for the publication of the Bill and its priority initiation in the Dáil in the coming weeks.

If it does join the UPC, Ireland will become the 18th participating state, joining the current 17 UPC members: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden.   The potential geographic reach of a UPC injunction would extend to Ireland once it joined the UPC system and Irish designated EPs would also become subject to revocation by the UPC if not opted out of its jurisdiction.

Since the states covered by a unitary patent (UP) are fixed as those participating in the UPC & UP system at the date that unitary effect is granted, the addition of Ireland to the UPC states would not change the coverage of UPs awarded before Ireland joined.  However, EPs granted unitary effect on or after the date of Ireland joining would cover all 18 states.

For more information on the UPC see our dedicated UPC & UP Hub and regular blog posts on our IP Notes Blog. SEe in particular our recent post and briefing The UPC – 2023’s achievements and predictions for 2024.