The London-headquartered firm, which was founded more than 180 years ago, previously established its first international office in Brussels in 2017 as part of its response to Brexit.

A spokesperson for Bristows told Irish Legal News that there was not yet a fixed opening date for the new office but work is well under way.

Commenting, Myles Jelf, joint head of patent litigation at Bristows, said: “Bristows has been very closely following and deeply engaged in the development of the UPC, a project that has been decades in the making.

“With our clients’ needs front of mind, we have been upskilling our team and scenario planning, including running a mock case process from pleadings, interim conference through to a final hearing. We had people appointed as judges and experts, so we’ve taken it very seriously for a long time.”

Steve Smith, Bristows’ joint managing partner, added: “With our dual EU qualified lawyers and outstanding patent litigation team, we are excited about working with our clients to support them in this new judicial process.”