Bonum Certa Men Certa

Even the US is Surprised or Baffled by Post-Brexit Unified Patent Court (UPC) Fantasies, Reveal Secret Documents

UPCA cannot be ratified except as a publicity stunt for 'World IP Day'

US on UPC



Summary: As it turns out (see above), even the United States understands that the Unitary Patent (UPC) is likely dead and it makes no sense for Britain to pretend otherwise (e.g. by signing off the UPCA)

THE British media had a leading/breaking story yesterday regarding the NHS (for the most part). Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn revealed some rather damning documents with focus on the NHS, but there's stuff in there that also pertains to patents (such as the above).



"Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn revealed some rather damning documents with focus on the NHS, but there's stuff in there that also pertains to patents (such as the above)."It is no secret that the UPC is an EU system, i.e. if Britain leaves the EU, it won't be able to participate and moreover UPC is strongly tied to the UK, so if the UK leaves the EU, then there's no UPC.

Ursula von der Leyen has just been blasted by the FFII's President, who told her in a reply that "the EPO does not respect the "rule of law", while you will outsource your patent granting for the Unitary Patent to this institution. How cynical are you?"

He has meanwhile told us (in IRC) about the press conference of Corbyn, highlighting what it tells us about patent policy. A high-profile pro-EU pundit wrote: "Going to read them - but first flick - there’s lots more than just pharma in here - implications for agriculture, “Geographical Indicators”... and eg here - US querying why the UK seeks to stay part of the (non-EU) [sic] Unified Patent Court - why would they do that? [...] Quite the leak this - the entire proceedings of the rather secretive UK-US Trade and Investment Working Group... body set up by May and Trump that started work in July 2017: 6 documents, hundreds of pages of official read outs, mostly not about Pharma..."

"Even access to generics (i.e. patents-related issues) would be directly impacted."It is not a leak per se, but Paul Waugh called it: "Secret documents summary from @jeremycorbyn NHS press conference..."

"Corbyn has revealed unredacted records of Johnson’s trade negotiations with the US," another person stated, and "they show: Our NHS is for sale Environmental, food and safety protections are up for grabs US corporations will be able to take our government to court This is a billionaire takeover."

Even access to generics (i.e. patents-related issues) would be directly impacted. As the high-profile (in Britain at least) Peston wrote: "Here UK lead negotiator in trade talks with US says US patent issues could be problematic for “NHS access to generic drugs (ie cheaper drugs)”. Negotiator says “it will be a key consideration going forward”. Which plainly means negotiator is anxious about this. It does not... [...] Most damaging charge made by @jeremycorbyn based on leaked trade-talk documents is that UK government is open to increasing patent length on drugs made by US companies. That would increase price of drugs paid by NHS. So @BorisJohnson has to say whether he would countenance that [...]" (source/context in [1, 2])

"It's easier to mobilise people for protests against NHS privatisation than to get them riled up over UPCA ratification."Thankfully, for the Tories, few in the public arena truly understand patent policy (lawyers and robber barons whom they work for prefer it that way). It's easier to mobilise people for protests against NHS privatisation than to get them riled up over UPCA ratification.

The UPC is designed to harm Europe and merely emboldens those who call the EU all sorts of things like "CIA project" (UPC is for rich and quite often American multinationals with their law firms, so it is an extension of a global class war). We know who stands to benefit from lowering of the patent bar. The legal barbwire is a form of protectionism by artificial means.

"We know who stands to benefit from lowering of the patent bar."European Patent Office (EPO) presidents like Campinos and Battistelli sought to advance software patents in Europe and other ridiculous patents by taking control of the legal process. Now they face obstacles and blowback (even from their own workers). We'll say more about this in our next post.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Linux and the Freedom Paradox
Linux is losing freedom if some external actors who only use Microsoft tools for development wrest control
Watch the FSF Party Live (via Livestream)
It's in WebM format, which is widely supported by now
Advocacy of Software Freedom Changed, LUGs Became Less Relevant
The way we see it, support groups like LUGs sort of outlived their usefulness when it became easier to install GNU/Linux
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Compromised by NVIDIA Proprietary Library
Meanwhile in Boston there are "[r]oundtable talk with FSF volunteers (both in-person and online)"
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
 
The Free Software Foundation's Livestream Has Ended, Video/s Might be Online Next
I've asked whether they'll upload video of some of the event; I still wait for an answer
The Register MS Does Not Know the Difference Between Microsoft GitHub and GitLab
At the time of writing (October 5) the article from "Thu 2 Oct 2025" remains uncorrected
"Bullshit Generators" (What RMS Calls LLMs) and Fake Images Already Target the FSF
Why does Google News promote fake articles about the FSF while omitting all the real ones?
Software Patents as a Bubble
Don't invest resources in hype; if you detect a bubble, run away from it
Links 05/10/2025: Political Leftovers, Climate Change, and Security Incidents
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 04, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 04, 2025
When Microsoft "Integrates" Something With "AI" It Means It's Losing Money and Is Generally Hopeless
how did Bing fare after 36 months of LLM slop being hyped up as "replacement" for search?
Most Certificates Don't Improve Security, They Mostly Increase Downtime (for No Good Reason)
The 'Gemini sites' (capsules) are a growing force
The statCounter Site Has Data Integrity Problems
Maybe we'll get back to statCounter when its data becomes more "stable" again
10 Ways to Combat Software Patents
software patents are loathed also by proprietary software developers
"Just a Little Bit of Meat..."
Free software "absolutism" is not a radical stance, more so if the only "radical" belief the user possesses is that he or she must be in control of his or her software, and by extension his or her computer
Red Hat is Ignoring the Free Software Community, It's a "Fortune 1000" Vendor
Red Hat's blog also participates a lot in promoting of Wall Street's latest pump-and-dump "AI" scheme
Free Software Foundation Party Has Begun
We shall be focusing a lot on software patents today
Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago) [...] When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About LibreOffice in Austria and Wine 10.16
very short
Links 04/10/2025: "attempted Coup" Noted in Facebook, Russia Kills Journalists via Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Anesthesia and Baudpunk
Links for the day
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day