THE prospects of software patents in Europe are grim. We're going to include some new examples in Daily Links. Basically, the European Patent Office (EPO) under António Campinos (and Battistelli) can carry on granting lots of bogus patents (see the cartoon/meme above), but actual courts will say "no" and throw these out. We see lots of these stories all the time, but we no longer cover them as often as before. Mostly because it's somewhat repetitive...
"Law firms (or litigation giants) across Europe aren’t happy because clients gradually realise that European Patents aren’t worth the fees."This undiplomatic language wasn't overlooked and it didn't take long for Matteo Pes, a UPC sceptic (apparently one of those hard-to-find honest attorneys), to respond. He joked at the phrase "List of lies..."
"According to the association of activists #FFII," he wrote separately, "the ratification of #UPCA (Unified #Patent Court Agreement) by Germany might open up the possibility for a second constitutional complaint, following the already pending one filed by Dr Ingve Björn Stjerna...."
"It does not appear like any more complaints are necessary," I responded, "and some were filed and succeeded outside Germany; Team UPC tried to bury or distort that news..."
The FFII's press release wasn't just noticed by Pes. It has been mentioned by others, including high-profile people like Dr. Glyn Moody and in German as well, not just by the author (here's the German version). It was also published in French although it was mostly promoted in English [1, 2] -- a language most Europeans can understand.
Going back to the rudeness of Team UPC, Dr. Birgit Clark politely corrected to "List of good intentions?"
She also cited the insult here ("All happening today: #UPC #patent #Germany Well, not much really happening but still, it creates a bit of excitement...")
"Still insulting or harassing judges," I told her....
This would not be the first time. We covered prior examples of this.
"For now Germany cannot ratify as it is," Benjamin Henrion responded.
They know it. Team UPC is aware. And it hurts them. They're sore and bitter, just like 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101 bashers who see USPTO-granted patents perishing in courts. Like Team UPC, they're made attempts to use legislation to override the proper legal process (they even bribed politicians like Coons for it, but Coons failed in 2017, 2018, and then 2019; in 2020 they openly admit it's not progressing).
The similarity is stunning!
We've meanwhile noticed that Gregory Bacon (BaCoons?) of Bristows LLP, one of the few left at the Bristows UPC team. He continues to spread the same old lies and spin. It's getting more pathetic by the week and now they obsess over one judge, so borderline ad hominem. Quite a few people left Bristows LLP recently. The sooner they collapse, the better. Here's the latest spin (similar to the previous):
The German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) has published here the list of major cases which it intends to decide in 2020. Each year, many cases listed are not decided and are carried over to the next year’s list, and, as would be expected, the constitutional complaint against the Unified Patent Court (UPC) legislation (case reference 2 BvR 739/17) remains on the list of cases in the Second Senate allocated to the rapporteur Justice Huber. However, although this UPC case (filed in March 2017) was on the 2018 and 2019 lists, Justice Huber expects it to be actually decided this year.
