Ireland and the Smart Economy
.jpg)
The Smart Economy is at the centre of the Irish Government’s programme to reposition Ireland in the coming years as an economic centre for IP rich industry. The work of groups such as the International Content Service Centre Task force and the Innovation Task Force are focussed on positioning Ireland as the country of choice for knowledge-based foreign direct investment, as well as on driving indigenous growth in the exporting high technology sector.
It is hoped that the momentum that the Government started with these initiatives is now maintained by seeing through their implementation.
See the strategy documents of these taskforces:
- Knowledge Society Strategy - Technology Actions to Support the Smart Economy (link to July 2009 document on Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources website.)
- Report of the Innovation Taskforce (link to pdf of March 2010 report on Department of An Taoiseach website)
Ireland has the three necessary ingredients needed to be an international innovation hub:
- a skilled workforce for the creation of IP;
- a robust legal system for the protection of IP; and
- a favourable tax regime for the exploitation of IP.
We need the Irish government to continue to look at IP legislative changes to give us a competitive advantage over other jurisdictions…
The Commercial Court which handles almost all IP enforcement cases is one of the most significant recent innovations in the Irish IP legal landscape. The efficiency of disposal of cases and the quality of judgments have been recognised internationally. We need the Irish government to complement this and look at legislative changes that give us a competitive advantage over other jurisdictions – other countries are competing, and so must we if our Smart Economy is to become a reality.
The favourable tax regime, while essential, may not be enough on its own – we have a strategic opportunity, if not a necessity, to differentiate ourselves now through our broader legal offering.
For more on this topic, you may be interested in this more complete article by John Whelan that featured in the Sunday Business Post.
