As campaigns for the local and European elections were underway last year, a third ballot paper was quietly being prepared. Ireland’s ratification of the Unified Patent Court, a new EU court for intellectual property disputes, was scheduled for the same polling day but with the ghost of the family and care referendums still haunting the government, the vote on the new patent court was pulled. The ratification of the UPC needs a referendum as it requires constitutional change to allow for the establishment of the court in Ireland and a ceding of some powers from the Irish courts to this…

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