07.25.17
Gemini version available ♊︎Patent Maximalists Continue to Warp the Debate/Media Coverage About Patents in Britain
Whose interest (or profit) matters more?
Reference: Lockheed Martin-Funded Experts Agree: South Korea Needs More Lockheed Martin Missiles
Summary: Just like in most places, including the English-speaking media in north America, British journalists omit voices of reason or simply give the podium to those seeking to increase the number of patent lawsuits (and breadth of these)
THE media is terrible when it comes to patents. Either it’s directly composed by the patent ‘industry’ or it extensively quotes this ‘industry’ (i.e. indirect presence) when the real industry is largely ignored or intentionally overlooked. This isn’t a coincidence or an error; this is exactly the intention and funding for such media comes from the patent ‘industry’ in an effort to indoctrinate (or advertise to) the real industry.
“This isn’t a coincidence or an error; this is exactly the intention and funding for such media comes from the patent ‘industry’ in an effort to indoctrinate (or advertise to) the real industry.”In recent years nothing demonstrated this better than EPO and UPC coverage in Europe. Putting aside EPO subsidies in order to distort/corrupt the media, there are also all kinds of “blogs” which are nothing more than advertising and lobbying. Take for example the latest coverage of the UK Supreme Court on Eli Lilly v Actavis. Search for it online and the top results are from CIPA, a British lobby for patent maximalists, which wrote about it earlier this month, with comments in IP Kat pertaining to EPO “Gold Standard” etc (almost all the comments there, at least over the past week, were about that).
It’s discussed a lot online, especially in British sites (yesterday Managing IP wrote about it behind a paywall). Nothing is being said by patients or people who are directly affected by this decision (in the life or death sense, not just profit).
“It’s almost as though the actual companies that make and invent things don’t deserve a voice, only a bunch of law firms that prey on and exploit them.”Last week we wrote about very important news in the UK, yet nobody in the media covered it, certainly not Team UPC. It hoped to just bury the news. As far as we are aware, this was covered by only one news site, under the title “UK parliament debate on UPC delayed” and the article is quoting just the patent microcosm, which is a foolish thing to do because they have vested interests that aren’t disclosed. Shame about them quoting liars from Bristows on this; they try to belittle what happened and use WIPR as a platform while simply ignoring it everywhere else.
Here are some portions:
In June, the UPC’s preparatory committee announced that the court would not become operational in December this year, as previously intended.
Helen Goodman, member of parliament for Bishop Auckland in County Durham, tweeted on Tuesday, July 18: “Government withdrew motion on Unified Patent Court with no notice last night. Chaos and confusion for industry, especially for pharma and lawyers.”
[...]
He warned however that this development is another indication that the “fragile momentum behind the UPC process is easily blown off course”.
Well, British software firms oppose the UPC, but none of them is quoted above (as usual). It’s almost as though the actual companies that make and invent things don’t deserve a voice, only a bunch of law firms that prey on and exploit them.
Meanwhile, British businesses like Dyson are being dragged to the US for lawsuits. WIPR wrote about it this week; the problem is that Dyson “uses software to map” things and that alone, apparently (software patents), was enough to have Brits dragged across the Atlantic:
Robot company Mc Robotics has sued vacuum cleaning company Dyson for patent infringement.
The case was filed on Thursday, July 20, at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Mc Robotics alleged that Dyson had infringed two patents belonging to it, which were US numbers 6,650,975 and 6,502,017.
After the UPC lobbying there’s also the threat of Dyson being dragged to various European cities by all sorts of patent trolls from all around the world, potentially invoking an embargo on Dyson products in quite a lot of countries. That would certainly be good for patent lawyers everywhere; but not so good for Dyson and its employees… █
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