Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Fall of the UPC - Part XI: Lies Told by Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI) in Süddeutsche Zeitung

FTI and Süddeutsche Zeitung



Summary: Today we look at misleading claims (or lies) published by Süddeutsche Zeitung after the Germans' constitutional court (FCC) had pointed out the obvious, namely that UPC ratification would be in violation of the German constitution

THIS week we'll start to properly tackle some of the biggest lies told by Team UPC. Today and over the next few days we shall take a look at what was said and then assess the accuracy. Are clients of law firms being misled? Are correct expectations put in place and across? Readers can assess for themselves, based on what we've 'harvested' and found out about. It took more than 2 weeks and it's as exhaustive a survey as we could make it.



As a quick reminder, it took the European Patent Office (EPO) more than one week to merely mention the FCC's decision and sort of respond to it. António Campinos decided to rely on some politician (like his dad and like Battistelli, his 'professional dad'), never mind if what that politician said was unrealistic and rightly raised a few brows. The EPO's dream of 'legalising' software patents in Europe (by capturing the courts) is now dead. Over the coming years expect many European Patents to be invalidated. The same thing happened in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) after Alice, a SCOTUS decision which turns 6 quite soon (early summer).

"It took more than 2 weeks and it's as exhaustive a survey as we could make it."The EPO does not seem to worry too much about the validity of patents it grants.

"EPO cannot be sued for maladministration," Benjamin Henrion pointed out the other day, and "this does not seem to concern the German Ministry of (In)justice: "The Federal Government believes that effective legal protection against decisions of the EPO exist. She currently sees no further need for reform." http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/19/178/1917809.pdf …"

This is the politician that the EPO decided to rely on as if breaking the law and violating the Constitution is as German as Apfelstrudel.

As long as the EPO is a cash cow for and of Germany, however, some parts of the German government (or some political parties) will look the other way and do nothing. They'll play along passively, irrespective of the veracity of the EPO's words and crimes (same for The Netherlands as we found out a few years ago). It's not only a cash cow but a 'sacred cow'. EPO "Mafia" exploits that "sacred" status to get away with virtually everything...

"As long as the EPO is a cash cow for and of Germany, however, some parts of the German government (or some political parties) will look the other way and do nothing.""German government answers to FDP about the EPO are here," Henrion wrote separately.

We wrote about it a week ago.

Separately, on another day, Henrion noted that "BDI complains about the UPC FCC: "Süddeutsche Zeitung, a published in its electronic version a complaint of BDI claiming that the decision on the UPCA by the FCC was not helping industry" http://patentblog.kluweriplaw.com/2020/03/27/despite-fcc-ruling-germany-wants-to-push-ahead-with-unitary-patent-system/#comment-36730 …"

Which industry? Litigation is not an industry (a 'meta-industry' per se) but arguably a parasite that negatively impacts even the automobile industry Germany thrives in. There are many articles to that effect and it is a contentious battle of interests. What's at stake is the future of Germany's economy. Heavy industrial producer or 'paperwork capital'?

Henrion tried to make sense of the text.

"Article about BDI here," he added, citing this Süddeutsche Zeitung piece. Remember the old days when Süddeutsche Zeitung still criticised the EPO? It didn't last long. In past years we explained the dirty tricks EPO management used to muzzle its critics.

"Litigation is not an industry (a 'meta-industry' per se) but arguably a parasite that negatively impacts even the automobile industry Germany thrives in."Henrion said or quoted: "BDI and SMEs: They even go as far as to claim that the UPC could help restore economy after the Corona episode. If we were April 1st, it would be good joke. http://patentblog.kluweriplaw.com/2020/03/27/despite-fcc-ruling-germany-wants-to-push-ahead-with-unitary-patent-system/ [...] UPC will install EU-wide software patents, using the EPO doctrines "the UPC would be to establish authoritative interpretations of the EPC and validity assessment rules, to which the EPO Boards of Appeal should give considerable weight." [...]"

In the next few parts we're going to look a little deeper into false claims originating from law firms, which spent a lot of money investing in "lobbying" for the UPC, wrongly assuming they would recover these costs in increased or 'enhanced' litigation across borders. They not only harmed themselves financially; it's likely that their clients wasted billions of Euros based on false hopes and maladjusted expectations (that UPC was coming "real soon!" or whatever).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
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 of says can be trusted
 
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
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October