THE EPO seems to be pushing the FRAND and software patents envelop these days. This means that a software patents tax may be silently creeping into Europe and there's no way for people to be exempted from it. It's attached to or bundled together with products.

"We aren't exactly surprised to see those sites aiding Ericsson's agenda. They have long been in cohesion or harmony with patent trolls' agenda. Some of their clients are literal patent trolls."Bristows, a fan of Ericsson's patent troll Unwired Planet (which operates in London and brings business to the likes of Bristows), has just written about this new case. It's not about Ericsson's trolling operations in Europe but about China. Richard Vary (Bird & Bird), who has similar interests to Bristows', including the UPC, has been given the platform. They push that old "FRAND" lie. They are basically promoting FRAND tax on the first day of the year; Patently-O has just done the same thing, courtesy of Jorge Contreras. It's introduced as follows: "The case involves the sale of cellular handsets by TCL, a Chinese firm reported to be the seventh largest global manufacturer of mobile phones. Ericsson is one of the largest holders of patents essential to the implementation of the 2G, 3G and 4G wireless telecommunications standards published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) (standards-essential patents or SEPs). Under ETSI’s policies, ETSI participants are required to grant licenses under their SEPs to implementers of ETSI standards on terms that are fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND).'

Ericsson -- like Microsoft -- is trying to tax every single phone and is even using trolls for this purpose. It publicly pretends to be reasonable, usually by detaching itself from the trolls and disguising the patent stacking ploy.

We aren't exactly surprised to see those sites aiding Ericsson's agenda. They have long been in cohesion or harmony with patent trolls' agenda. Some of their clients are literal patent trolls. ⬆