Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Attack on the Independence of the European Judges Has Apparently Expanded to the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht)

What happens if Team UPC has shrewdly added its members to the German court that is set to decide on UPC?

Stephan Harbarth



Summary: Questions and doubts linger over the future (or lack thereof) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC); the addition of Stephan Harbarth, however, is rather disturbing as he might become the court's president in a couple of years and his bias/self-interest is a matter of public record

THE European Patent Office (EPO) does not mention the UPC anymore. Almost never. Seeing the potential scandal over a judge's or future president's appointment, they might be wise to say nothing. We've been researching this further and it looks rather ugly; we only abstain from commenting any further because there's no clear evidence of malice just yet. Might this explain fabricated (albeit false) rumours from Team UPC? They have gotten really desperate.



"The UK can stay in the EPO, but the UPC does not exist and even if it did exist, Britain would be unable to become part of it."Yesterday Lexology published this piece titled "German Constitutional Complaint Against the UPC Agreement"; Weickmann & Weickmann's Dr. Markus Herzog oversimplifies this; Hungarian courts would reject the UPC too as it was found to be unconstitutional (by a high court) so Germany isn't the final stop, Brexit notwithstanding as well. This is the latest spinner of many Team UPC spinners and we watch this closely (as we do Stephan Harbarth).

Yesterday we saw this article from IPPro Magazine's Ben Wodecki, who obviously misses the point that the UPC is practically dead (bar incredible mischief) and therefore there's nothing left for the UK to seek participation in. Wodecki wrote this:

Once the UK leaves the EU, it says it will continue to seek participation the Unified Patent Court and Unitary Patent system and will continue to cooperate in relation to IP within existing multilateral treaties.


The UK can stay in the EPO, but the UPC does not exist and even if it did exist, Britain would be unable to become part of it. Seeing the corruption associated with Battistelli's attack on judges -- an attack perpetuated by António Campinos -- the Constitutional Court in Germany is expected to ultimately reject UPC/A. Does Team UPC have some trick in the making? Might Stephan Harbarth be part of it? His past statements associate him with Team UPC (he publicly lied about the prospects of UPC while working for a private firm), so he is not an independent observer. He was well paid by those with interest (and investment) in the UPC. He wore "two hats" and received almost the most money while in Parliament (from a private firm).

Managing Intellectual Property, an EPO-connected UPC propaganda site, has meanwhile published another marketing piece from Inspicos P/S. It's about the EPO's appeal boards that still lack independence and to quote (with repetition highlighted):

EPO: Appeal board of EPO provides guidance on amendments filed late



In opposition proceedings before the EPO, the formal admissibility of amendments filed late by proprietors is a frequently debated topic and differently decided on. A recent appeal decision, T 500/15, reiterates the criteria for the assessment of admissibility of amendments that are filed late and the specific criteria the competent departments of the EPO should apply when exercising their discretionary powers with regard to admissibility.



[...]

In the subsequent second instance proceedings, the appeal board entrusted with the matter came to the conclusion in decision T 500/15 that the first instance department had not adequately exercised its discretionary powers with regard to the admissibility of the amended claims.



We can quite frankly relate to the appeal boards for two reasons: 1) Team UPC is trying to make them redundant (destroying their very role); 2) Team Battistelli constantly attacks their independence, thus discrediting the perceived legitimacy of their decisions. We might soon see the Constitutional Court in Germany suffering a similar problem (discredited legitimacy because of the addition of Stephan Harbarth).

It's really a shame that Europe's patent system -- once among the best in the world (if not the best) -- became so chaotic. Yesterday we saw this outline of a new Federal Circuit case where it fought back, successfully, against patent maximalists (they like to smear these technical judges, but they cannot fire them or cause resignations). They cited European Patent Application Publication No. 0 094 161:

Last week, in In re Ikeda Food Research Co., the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board affirming the Examiner's rejection in an ex parte reexamination of claims 22 and 23 of U.S. Application No. 12/851,668 for obviousness. On appeal before the Board, the challenged claims were found obvious in view of three references: European Patent Application Publication No. 0 094 161 ("Senior") and U.S. Patent Nos. 6,656,702 ("Yugawa A") and 6,059,946 ("Yugawa B").


As readers know, we've stopped covering US affairs except if (and when) we see threat of a software patents comeback over there. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs) continue unabated (patent maximalists report figures for 2019 and it's roughly the same as before) and 35 U.S.C. €§ 101 remains largely the same, in lieu with SCOTUS. It's actually the EPO that now poses a a threat of software patents resurgence. Their plan has, perhaps all along, been to bypass national patent courts with the UPC, extending the EPO's position on bogus, abstract patents to judges as well. We cannot let that happen. It would severely harm Europe.

As Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna put it a month ago: "Will Mr Harbarth’s commitment to the European patent reform [sic] be continued at the BVerfG?" (Bundesverfassungsgericht)

Based on our readings, before even reaching the age of 50 this man already has quite a few scandals under his belt.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Punching People Doesn't Work
It makes nobody any safer
This is How Microsoft's XBox and Entire Consoles (If Not Gaming) Ventures Will Ultimately Die
Ensure you can blame "Tariffs" (politics)? If not "hey hi", the fashionable go-to excuse when businesses fail?
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Cloudflare Gives Us All Another Reason to Boycott Cloudflare
If Cloudflare wants to use its vast surveillance network (which is what it does as a CDN) to foist paywalls and maybe something worse (like DRM on top), then Cloudflare should be more widely rejected as a company
Someone Expiring Certificates on the Day of the 9/11 Attacks is Not Someone I Would Want Controlling My PC (or Deciding What's Authorised for Booting)
"social justice warriors"
More Microsoft-Red Hat Cross-Pollination as the Company Loses a Managing Director
some people move from Microsoft to Red Hat and some do the opposite
 
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, SPAM With Slop, and Google News Directs People to Read Slopfarms
why does Google News insist on still linking to prolific slopfarms?
Gemini Links 25/09/2025: New Game for Gemini Protocol, Eleven, and Network Solutions Woes
Links for the day
Look Ma, No "Cloud"
So far this year we've had an almost perfect uptime
Links 24/09/2025: Autism Blame-Shifting and Typhoon Ragasa Enters China
Links for the day
Buying From Oneself is Not Business Success
This isn't at all a joking matter even if you already laugh at the whole thing because your pension, savings etc. are tied to this scam at some level
What They Really Hate David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) for
Nothing to do with code
Smart People Won't Buy 'Smart' Cars
Imagine trying to sell someone a house (proper home) while insisting that it'll need to be demolished 5 or 10 years later, then rebuilt again from scratch on the same vacant lot
The Relationship Between IBM Red Hat and Microsoft, Visualised
This metaphor goes a long way (projects, collaborations, and outsourcing
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part III - Spying on Reporters' Families, Chaining Cases for Microsoft Employees Who Demand Censorship of Facts (Even Politely Expressed)
the time seems right to wrap up this introductory series
Links 24/09/2025: "NASA Moving Out of Entire Buildings as It's Gutted" and Purge of Online Critics (Opposing Fascism Becomes Unlawful)
Links for the day
Science is Under Attack
Oligarchy prefers a dumbed-down population
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has Reportedly Failed People With Wrong Advice
At the moment the SRA has a PR blunder
The Man Suing Brett Wilson LLP and Gervase de Wilde (5RB)
Now he's probably using the (almost) 200,000 pounds he's supposed to receive to sue Brett Wilson LLP and former colleagues/partners
Slopwatch: A World Wide Web That's Rotting for Companies That Won't Even Exist in a Few Years
some of the junk Google News is promoting
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Links 24/09/2025: Qt Creator 18 Beta, Microsoft Cannot Bail Out "ChatGPT" Anymore, China and US Intensify Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/09/2025: Gemlogs and Politics
Links for the day
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights