Bonum Certa Men Certa

Shock, Horror: International Chamber of Commerce Promotes Intellectual Monopolies

ICC logo



Summary: More ICC propaganda gives patent lawyers the ammunition which they need to convince people that intellectual monopoles "drive innovation and economic growth"

There is yet more propaganda from IAM (site for patent lawyers), claiming that "IP drives innovation and economic growth, new ICC report claims". For those who don't know, it's the International Chamber of Commerce, which is a notorious lobby group whose take on this was also covered in [1, 2]. We previously wrote about the US Chamber of Commerce, emphasising that it was just a front group of large corporations. Such corporations obviously love patents and along with them there's the meta-industry of patent lawyers.



Pro-patenting firms organise events right now [1, 2] while the USPTO keeps granting patent monopolies on ideas that otherwise can bring improvement to society (if not monopolised). British patent lawyers write about IPCom and Nokia:

Given the alleged €12b at stake for Nokia, which the Court of Appeal indicated it had been told IPCom was asking for in the German proceedings, it must be sighing in relief...


Speaking of Germany, the FFII, which has been tackling Europe's rush into the patents cold war, had this to say:

We should have a meaningful debate on the "Enhanced Cooperation" model and the German political rushing


It is clear that lobbying groups such as the Chamber of Commerce will carry on advancing corporations' interests, e.g. by pushing for more patents everywhere. Lobbyists don't speak truth, they push an agenda. The latest from the ICC was commissioned by the ICC Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) initiative. So the outcome was expected. The findings are not noteworthy.

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