04.03.17
Gemini version available ♊︎As a Bargaining Chip, UPC (Unitary Patent/Unified Patent Court) is a Curse, Not a Gift
The UK can be a safe haven from patent trolls, not taxation
Summary: The United Kingdom does not want the UPC, albeit Team UPC will continue to claim the opposite, and British politicians need to act accordingly
“Bargaining chip” is a term that is most often used in the context of Brexit negotiations (to describe the cards held by the EU and the UK). We recently saw that term used in relation to the UPC, which the EPO‘s management wants to shove down everyone’s throats, even in defiance of British interests. What we explained 3 days ago is that, if anything, Brexit negotiators should treat UPC as an undesirable to the UK. A small bunch of law firms down in London do not represent the wishes and desires of British businesses or people. Businesses complain about the UPC and rightly so.
“…Brexit negotiators should treat UPC as an undesirable to the UK.”“It is rather amusing to believe the UK would consider the UPC a “card in the hand”,” one person said today, “and frankly ridiculous for anyone to believe the UPC will be given a moment’s thought by any EU member state.”
This came up amid discussion about Brexit in general (including Gibraltar, i.e. well beyond our scope of coverage). “Several issues raised, in those last comments,” the response to that said. “One of them relevant to patents namely UPC as negotiating card.”
“A small bunch of law firms down in London do not represent the wishes and desires of British businesses or people.”It carried on; “doing things ‘in an orderly fashion’,” then said the person who brought it all up, “would mean first discussing what is going to happen post-Brexit before starting up the UPC and UP.”
Finally, said the UPC sceptic, “the UPC is a non-issue on the political list of priorities. There was no urgency for the UK to sign and it would have been reasonable not to pending an idea on how things would work when the UK leaves. No point setting off on boat journey when you know the plug will be pulled when out in deep water.”
“We don’t expect any of it to make headway in the UK.”This is what we have been arguing for many months. The government has much higher priorities right now than some dubious, scarcely understood and barely coherent piece of text put together by predators (prepared for signing without public scrutiny).
We are encouraged to see that the British government was in no rush to ratify anything; they too must know by now that Brexit and UPC are inherently incompatible, the undesirability of the UPC aside. We don’t expect any of it to make headway in the UK. It will not even come up in negotiation phases; there are much more important things to discuss and it seems likely that UPC proponent Michel Barnier would have somewhat of a conflict to declare if he attempted to help Battistelli wheel that Trojan horse into Britain.. █
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