Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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27. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to proceed with Ireland’s membership of the European Unified Patent Court System and the holding of a referendum on the subject. [6358/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is an International court set up by participating EU Member States to deal with the infringement and validity of Unitary Patents. The international Agreement on a Unified Patent Court was signed by many EU Member States during Ireland’s EU Presidency in 2013, with a view to establishing the Unified Patent Court.

The UPC and the Unitary Patent entered into effect on the 1st June 2023. 24 EU Member States, including Ireland, have signed the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA). As of now, 18 EU Member States have ratified the UPCA. These are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden.

Government has committed that a local division of the Court will be established in Ireland if the State ratifies the UPCA. The passing of a Constitutional referendum will be required. Currently our courts have jurisdictional powers regarding patent litigation. Only the UPC can deal with litigation concerning Unitary Patents. Therefore, in order for the UPC, including any local division based in Ireland, to hear Unitary Patent cases, an amendment to the Constitution would be required.

The Government sees many benefits to the ratification of the UPC including increased competitiveness for the small and medium enterprise sector, cost benefits, support for innovative R&D, and enhancement of Ireland’s overall competitiveness in a rapidly evolving global economy. To date, more than 30% of unitary patents applied for by European companies were filed by SMEs. The Unitary Patent and UPC offers SMEs an efficient, cost-effective, simplified and additional way to protect and enforce their patents across multiple European countries.

The previous Government reaffirmed its commitment to ratifying and participating in the UPC system but decided to defer the date for the referendum to a future date in order to facilitate greater public discourse and more informed debate on the matter.

The Bill, providing for the referendum called Forty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Agreement on a Unified Patent Court) Bill 2024, lapsed with the dissolution of the previous Dáil. It is proposed to restore the Bill to the Order paper. A new date for the referendum is currently under review and will take into account stakeholder feedback.