Ireland published last week its legislative programme for the current parliamentary session which sets out the legislation that the Irish Government will seek to publish over the next few months. It contains notably the “Amendment of the Constitution (Unified Patent Court) Bill” that will amend Article 29 of the Constitution for it to recognize the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court .
Although heads of bill, or key areas of this bill, have already been approved on 23rd July 2014, Ireland will have to hold a referendum to approve this amendment to the constitution. The Supreme Court has in fact previously held that any transfer of sovereignty, or the transfer of judicial powers to an international body, requires a referendum . The referendum has already been planned for by the Irish Government in its Programme for partnership government (p.153, mistakenly referred to as the Universal Patent Court…), although no date has yet been published.
Finally, Bristows UPC highlights that the Law Society of Ireland has published an ad for the Irish Department for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to invite patent judges and practitioners in patent law to put themselves forward for nomination to the Advisory Committee of the Unified Patent Court, that will take soon over the work of the Preparatory Committee.
Ireland seems therefore to have its eyes firmly set on taking part in the UPC, although with its coming live in Spring 2017, whether Ireland will be ready on time is uncertain.