Bonum Certa Men Certa

Team UPC Has Been Reduced to Lies, Lies, and More Lies about the Unified Patent Court Agreement

Summary: With the Unified Patent Court Agreement pretty much dead on arrival (an arrival that is never reached, either) the UPC hopefuls -- those looking to profit from lots of frivolous patent litigation in Europe -- resort to bald-faced lying

THIS WEEKEND we're still struggling with server issues and potential migration by month's end. We've decided to focus on the European Patent Office (EPO) today and leave aside, at least until tomorrow, all the coverage about the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). We should also note that things have quieted down on both 'fronts' (or continents or countries), presumably because of the media's decline in general, not lack of things to cover.



Just before the weekend we caught some lies about the Unitary Patent (referred to collectively as Unified Patent Court, or UPC). We have given many examples of the common lies about UPC in relation to Brexit. These lies are being repeated every week, almost always by law firms with a stake in the outcome.

Just before the weekend a 'news' site of a law firm encouraged businesses to ask for more business from law firms. Why? Brexit. What a bunch of self-serving manipulators. Skipping all the self-promotional nonsense, there's this sentence towards the end: "The withdrawal agreement also confirms that the UK will be considered a member of the new Unified Patent Court regime during the Brexit transition period."

There's no UPC! The Unified Patent Court doesn't exist and here they are pretending again that it's there already and the only question is, can the UK join? (it technically and legally cannot)

Unified Patent Court lies like these are just nonchalantly thrown out there; the above shows up even in Google News (which does not seem to recognise the lack of objectivity of the source that's trying to sell something). Shameless self-promotion and marketing.

“Unified Patent Court lies like these are just nonchalantly thrown out there; the above shows up even in Google News (which does not seem to recognise the lack of objectivity of the source that's trying to sell something).”The Dennemeyer Group also spreads lies about the Unified Patent Court Agreement; it's now pretending that "no legal barriers are standing in the way, just some political will." This is a lie. There are constitutional barriers and corruption.

From Dennemeyer's article: "The Agreement only needs ratification by Germany and Great Britain to come into effect. When it comes to the latter, no legal barriers are standing in the way, just some political will."

Nonsense. Utter nonsense.

Then came the CIPA types, just like the above law firms. To quote the messengers' self-promotional disclosures: "European Patent Attorney, Chartered Patent Attorney (UK) with a Ph.D. and a Master Degree in Physics, Dr. Anthony Carlick entered the IP profession in 2005. Before joining Dennemeyer & Associates, he worked for a top tier IP firm in the UK and also spent four years in the Middle East as a patent consultant. In this presentation, part of our Dennemeyer Annual Meeting 2018 blog series, Dr. Carlick discusses all the different options patent owners have and the ratification of UPC."

They are just trying to sell something. Doing so by lying is detrimental to one's reputation.

Speaking of poor reputation, how about Bristows? Alan Johnson (Bristows) cites an unsourced "rumour" (lie that brings up further concerns) about UPC given a go-ahead in Germany by year's end. This is a lobbying tactic of Team UPC; it's pretty much refuted by the court itself.

Kluwer Patent Blog published it under a real name, for a change, as many of their UPC articles were recently posted anonymously (usually those seeking to discredit truth-tellers about the UPC).

“They have been saying UPC would start "real soon now" for at least 3 years and where are we now?”People like Alan Johnson are telling these lies to politicians (like Jo Johnson and his successor), who then make misleading public statements. From Alan Johnson: "What then of the UPC and unitary patent dossier? From that perspective, the important point about this draft agreement is the expected Transition Period. Union law still applies to the UK in this period including, of course, the unitary patent and translation Regulations. These Regulations require that unitary patents are litigated in the UPC, and hence the effect of the Withdrawal Agreement is implicitly to sanction the UPC Agreement coming into force with the UK as a participant. “All” then that is required is for the Bundesverfassungsgeright to deal with the Stjerna Complaint – which rumours suggest might happen this year. Hence, if this Brexit deal goes through in some form, and if the BVerfG delivers the hoped-for rejection of the Complaint, we could actually see the UPC start in 2019 – a mere 60 years since a pan-European patent court was first seriously mooted and a mere 20 years since the Paris Intergovernmental Conference of the EPC which started the latest efforts (your author attended his first meeting with the UK IPO on this topic on 18 November 1999)."

This is an incredible lie, as usual from Bristows. They have been saying UPC would start "real soon now" for at least 3 years and where are we now? Their UPC blog is pretty much dead. No blog posts in months (they used to write several times per week).

Techrights recently turned 12 and I've never in those dozen years seen such chronic lying. Team UPC takes it to a whole new level.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The End of Red Hat
expect many more layoffs soon
Only Hours Into the New Year People Already Discuss the Next Round of Layoffs at Red Hat/IBM
2026 will be another tough year for Red Hat and IBM
 
Slopwatch Still Dead, Not Enough LLM Slop About "Linux"
this is the desirable thing
LibXML2 Will Carry on (Without or With the Name "LibXML2")
The proprietary software boosters are projecting
Gemini Links 02/01/2026: ThinkPad, SHARP Zaurus, Lagrange Handheld Support
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 01, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 01, 2026
Links 01/01/2026: "Biophobia" and Renewed Effort to Locate MH370
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/01/2026: Bot Accounts Online and Reading in 2025
Links for the day
IBM’s and Red Hat’s "Operation Evolution initiative" Just Long, Fancy Term for Bluewashing, Redundancies, Layoffs
Gerstner is still alive, but he's shorter and more arrogant
Designing a Better Mousetrap or Tools for the SSG
Static Site Generators (SSGs) - unlike all modern Content Management Systems (CMSs) - are so simple that extending them is easy
Links 01/01/2026: 1930 Works in the Public Domain, Electricity Pricing 'a Mystery'
Links for the day
Firefox is Toast Because It Got Toasted by Mozilla
Firefox cannot keep above 2% and hasn't been able to for quite some time
Ignore the LLM Slop and the Noise, Microsoft is in a Death Spiral
So what does Microsoft have left to sell?
Red Hat is Vanishing Before Our Eyes
With some Red Hat staff "transitioning" we wonder if it's an HR hack, wherein they "reset the clock" on employment duration so as to lessen severance obligations
In 2025 Microsoft Lost Palau
Palau now has GNU/Linux at steadily high levels
Microsoft Mocked UNIX/Linux for Not Handling Dates After 2038, Microsoft Breaks Down on 2026!
Only a truly moronic company would design it that way
Another New Year's Resolution: Public Domain Sources, Credits
In addition to our first one
Combatting Slop Images (and ClownFlare)
we won't use or reuse slop images
A New Year's Resolution: Maximal Transparency
We'll do our very best to be transparent about everything that's going on, even legal matters
Gemini Links 01/01/2026: 2025 Comes to a Close and Capsular Gemlog Manager
Links for the day
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Raised About 1.3 Million Dollars in the Past Couple of Months!
the FSF's Board now has 10 people in it
2026 IBM Phaseout of Red Hat
Red Hat won't fare any better than most IBM acquisitions
Microsoft Budget Issues, XBox Thrown Under the Bus
They're cutting budget. Soon they'll cut the staff.
EPO People Power - Part XXI - Europe's Second-Largest Institution Became a Corrupt For-Profit Company Run by Drug Addicts
it'll be the demise of the Rule of Law in Europe and maybe a death blow to the EU (eventually), not just the EPO
Another Very Productive Year Commences
"a total of over 17,000 pages in a year"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 31, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Fiji: GNU/Linux Has Risen From Almost Nothing to Almost 5% in Recent Years
It's not as small as people are led to believe
Gemini Links 31/12/2025: Blogosphere is Growing and New Year Begins
Links for the day
Recruiters Don't Use Microsoft LinkedIn, Spammers Use LinkedIn
One of my best friends, a university professor, lost all of his life's savings due to Microsoft LinkedIn
You've Only Wasted Your Life in Social Control Networks
In a sense, social control media is a giant delusion
2025 Was a Very Bad Year for Social Control Media
statCounter sees a gradual demise in Social Control Media access
Don't "Go Paperless", Go Paperful [sic] (for What Really Matters)
Why should we favour paper use sometimes? Well, many reasons.
Complexity Considered Harmful: We Used to Run an Operating System on 64KB of RAM, Not 64GB of RAM (a Million Times More)
"Initially confined to single-tasking on 8-bit processors and no more than 64 kilobytes of memory"
The Slop Industry is Failing So Badly (Mountains of Debt, Losses) That It's Merging With the SPAM Industry
we reckon that Google will eventually delist all slopfarms, recognising they're just a form of SPAM
Links 31/12/2025: Cheeto Pushing for More Wars, ‘Security is a Shared Responsibility’
Links for the day
Enshittification of Postal Services Isn't Technological Advancement
Societies that say the aim is to "go digital" and eliminate paper trail aren't advanced; they're moving backwards
IBM Starts 2026 a Much Smaller Company (Not Homage to Gerstner)
People who get bluewashed out of their job (or bluewashed into unemployment) are gagged by NDAs
XBox is Likely Dead Already, But the Threat It Posed to Us All for Two Decades Isn't Over
"the Xbox was never about gaming and merely served as a test bed for DRM in commodity systems."
Ahead of 2026 Mass Layoffs at Microsoft the Tree Gets Shaken to See Who 'Falls' (Resigns/Retires)
"We had a quiet meeting last week about budget realignment. No one said layoffs, but it’s clear where the focus is shifting."
Almost 6,5000 Pages in 2025, Aiming Higher in 2026
if we can keep focused, then quantity will increase
Microsoft XBox Having a "Dog Ate My Homework" Moment: No New Console Until 3 Years From Now... Because "RAM Prices"
Who will ever remember this in 2028? Nobody.
Gemini End of Year Capsules Tally (Based on Lupa) Shows About 10% Growth
What a difference a year makes
Gemini Links 31/12/2025: New Resolution, Reverse Hexdump, and Programming Languages
Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why Chatbots Became Dishonesty on Top of Dishonesty (Hiding Usage of Dishonest Salads of Words)
new article from CyberShow
Links 31/12/2025: Nvidia Faces Bubble-Bursting Moment, Saudi Oil Money Pumped Into Chatbots to Keep the Energy Waste Going (Circular Financing Again)
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's First Talk in a U.S. College Since 2018
Greetings from Georgia Tech!
EPO People Power - Part XX - Why António Campinos Chose to Put His Cokehead Friend on 'Sick Leave'
EPO Cocainegate will be covered for months to come
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 30, 2025