Northern Ireland

Lough Neagh

℗ 2019 Jane Elizabeth Lambert: all rights reserved

Jane Lambert

If you were wondering what had happened to my blogs I am on holiday in Northern Ireland, Yesterday I took this photo from Oxford Island, a nature reserve on the southern shore of Lough Neagh, a vast inland sea in the centre of Nothern Ireland.

But I am keeping my eyes open and my wits about me so that I can report things that may be of interest to my readers such as the Catalyst Science Parks in Belfast, Ballymena and Derry-Londonderry. There are also accelerator and incubator programmes in Nothern Ireland such as Ignite's in Belfast as well as business angels and private equity investors.

Belfast Central Library used to be listed as a PatLib library but it is no longer on the current list and there does not appear to be an IP clinic in the province but there are patent and trade mark attorneys who can be identified by searching the IPReg website.

The Patents Act 1977, Trade Marks Act 1994, Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 and Registered Designs Act 1949 as amended applies to Northern Ireland as it does to the rest of the United Kingdon. So, too, do the EU Trade Mark and Community Designs Regulations and other EU legislation for so long as the UK remains a member. Northern Ireland is a common law jurisdiction whose judges have developed a law of passing off and an obligation of confidence that is similar if not identical to the laws of England and Wales.

As in England and Wales, there are superior courts equivalent to the Senior Courts that are known collectively as the Court of Judicature of Nothern Ireland.   These consist of a High Court of Justice which is divided into Chancery, Queen's Bench and Family Divisions and a Court of Appeal.  Appeals from the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland lie to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdon.

There do not appear to be any specialist courts for patents or other intellectual property cases.  Order 104 rule2 of the Rules of the Court of Judicature (which appear to be based on the Rules of the Supreme Court of England and Wales which were in force before 1999) assigns patent and registered design cases to the Chancery Division.  There have not been many IP cases from Northern Ireland but Siemens A.G. v Seagate Technology (Ireland) [2011] NICh 12 (14 June 2011) which I discussed in Patent Litigation in Northern Ireland: Siemens AG v Seagate Technology  13 Aug 2011 NIPC Law.,

Should anyone wish to discuss this article or IP litigation in Northern Ireland generally call me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form.