Why do the Irish hate Hashtags?

There’s been quite the debate in Trademark Circles over the last few years about the status of #hashtags in Trademarks, and whether adding a hashtag to a word or phrase might fundamentally alter it and make it distinctive or capable of being registered as a trademark where it might otherwise not be.

That debate will have to wait for another day however, because we have a more basic problem in Ireland

You can’t search the Irish Patents Office website for a term that uses “#”

So for example, there is a recent application for #CelebrateNurses.

Look at it there in all it’s hash-taggy goodness:

Unfortunately, if you search for #celebratenurses on the Irish Patents Office website, you get this:

So whether it’s possible to register them or not, it’s certainly not possible to search for them, so you might never know! #HowVeryIrish