04.21.20
UPC Totally Still Has Momentum
Summary: The confidence of Team UPC is no longer there, no matter how desperately they’re trying to fake inertia
France Keeps Winning European Inventor Award (Millions of Euros of EPO Budget)
[Source]
2015: France
2016: Portugal
2017: Italy
2018: France
2019: Austria
2020: (COVID-19)
2021: Monaco France
A lot worse than FIFA
Summary: 50% of the ceremonies that should include about 30 nations were/will be held in France, sometimes even with 'Judge' Benoît Battistelli, who highlighted how corrupt and political it all became [1, 2, 3]
“Battistelli’s colleagues at Saint-Germain-en-Laye are also worried about it (too many European Inventor Award ceremonies had been held in France, representing a passage of large sums of money — the funds derived from stakeholders)” –2018
The Role Played by Media Controlled by Litigation Companies in Promoting the Unitary Patent (UPC) Ploy
Even publishers that entrap judges, shame judges and spread lots of falsehoods or lots of misleading coverage could not bypass the FCC, Germany’s top arbitrator on constitutional matters
Summary: The weaponisation of publishers, perturbed to pursue illegal (or rather unconstitutional) law, must never be forgotten; how should we react and how can the publishers that participated in this plot/ploy even regain trust?
TODAY or yesterday marks a month since the final death blow to the UPC, which was falsely marketed as European “unity” or “community”. It’s a lie, just like the idea that law firms are “IP community” (nothing like community about it).
Germany’s Justices — not ordinary judges — basically buried what Benoît Battistelli allegedly hoped to run and António Campinos lied about 3 weeks ago (in the EPO’s official Web site). The ramifications are profound and more far-reaching than the European Patent Office (EPO) will ever publicly acknowledge. This project goes way more than a decade back and “project” would be a misnomer or understatement. It was all along more like a coup.
“The ramifications are profound and more far-reaching than the European Patent Office (EPO) will ever publicly acknowledge.”In the ‘calm’ of corona — for lack of a better term (it’s like a silent killer) — we looked back at so-called ‘press’ coverage which wasn’t as visible a month ago. And surely enough a month ago behind a paywall the patent maximalist Scott Graham published something insinuating that the UPC’s rejection by the FCC was merely a “snub”, noting: “The country’s Federal Constitutional Court says a two-thirds vote of its parliament is necessary before Germany can get behind the long-running project.”
It didn’t appear to us until today and it downplays what happened, within just hours of it happening. He’s calling a violation of the law being pointed out… a “snub”. It’s in the headline. UPC rejected? Those snobs!!! Those opinionated judges!!!
“He’s calling a violation of the law being pointed out… a “snub”. It’s in the headline.”Well, enforcing the law and the constitutions is never a “snub”; To ignore those is a lot worse than a “snub” and it is likely an offence, too.
This is what happens when so many sites about law are controlled by law firms. Watch ICLG.com having just published self-promotional spam as an ‘article’, treating a mere job change of Team UPC folks as actual “news”. This person’s “career included more than twelve years at Bird & Bird, with more than six of those years as a partner in its Dusseldorf office. This was followed by a nearly six-year tenure in Simmons & Simmons’ dispute resolution practice.”
Two of the worst of Team UPC, except perhaps Bristows. Nobody is worse than Bristows when it comes to UPC lies.
“Nobody is worse than Bristows when it comes to UPC lies.”In hindsight, and looking back at the FCC’s historic decision years or decades down the line, scholars will hopefully see (and remember) the UPC for what it really was. It was at least partly a cautionary tale or lesson on legislative capture. You might get away with it for a year or even a decade. But if that comes to a court — more so a constitutional court (and not just in Germany by the way; not anymore) — it will blow back, discrediting a lot of law firms and their publishers in the process.
We hope that people out there, EPO examiners included, look back at all that UPC press coverage from the past few years. See how often you were being lied to. These lies are their business model. This is the kind of thing they’re being paid for. █
Reporting About Reporting and the Disease of Exploiting Pandemic to Sell Advertisements and/or Panic
Summary: The media has been showing its worst sides lately; accuracy does not matter, falsehoods are being perpetuated because they attract/yield more clicks, and scaremongering is rampant (for agenda mostly)
“THE NEWS IS slow…”
What does that sentence even mean?
That typically means that not many announcements are made, primarily by corporations (in a world driven by them, just like pertinent governments), offering new information to analyse and digest. The flow of information is slowed down considerably; this leaves a vacuum for misinformation and it’s sometimes startling to see what some people are willing to believe. The “Conspiracy Industry” wants people to tremble over stories that simply aren’t true; heck, the US President does it all the time…
“One thing we’ve noticed is that sites like Watchtroll keep exploiting COVID-19 for patent maximalists’ propaganda; it’s rather gross or grotesque at times.”It would be a lie to say that patent news is abundant; the very opposite is true and there was a rare SCOTUS nugget in yesterday’s news. We’ll add or include links related to it in our next Daily Links; that does not concern software patents; it’s about the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and to a lesser degree about inter partes reviews (IPRs).
One thing we’ve noticed is that sites like Watchtroll keep exploiting COVID-19 for patent maximalists’ propaganda; it’s rather gross or grotesque at times. Similarly, management of the European Patent Office (EPO) exploits the pandemic to wage an attack on its staff and justify breaking the law, including key EPC sections. António Campinos is probably somewhere in Portugal right now (or maybe Munich), planning the next PR ploy in France or Monaco (still basing EPO events there, just like Battistelli). The announcement of that was made rather quietly during a pandemic from what we can gather. Averting another scandal or outcry? Better than midnight on a Sunday, right?
Richard Stallman wrote an inspiring little page this spring (“Don’t watch TV coverage of Covid-19!”), highlighting the role of media in creating panic and exploiting the pandemic.
“I personally think that the pandemic is a real crisis which should be taken seriously, not belittled. But at the same time allowing this sort of takeover of “the news” means that many big scandals slide or slip or crouch under the radar, facilitating greater abuses than ever before.”Sadly, everywhere one turns (even technology sites) it’s all COVID COVID COVID COVID COVID!
Don’t become a victim of propaganda.
I personally think that the pandemic is a real crisis which should be taken seriously, not belittled. But at the same time allowing this sort of takeover of “the news” means that many big scandals slide or slip or crouch under the radar, facilitating greater abuses than ever before. The only thing worse than this is the dramatisation, exaggeration and fabrication of stories to help construct controversy (clickbait basically) — a growing trend as people run out of patience, look for alternative stories (even outright cranky theories), and sometimes march the streets, sharing pathogens and thereby accomplishing the very opposite of what they hope for (making quarantines less effective and further delaying resumption of business).
We’re increasingly seeing stories egging people on to ‘rebel’ for their ‘liberty’ and “reopen America” or whatever (nice euphemism for killing the old and vulnerable). Irresponsible journalism causes many deaths right now (more so than before). The many liars we see promoting more patents as the ‘solution’ to COVID-19 are like circus props; we don’t want to name them here and it’s unworthy of additional attention. Most but not all of them are in the litigation ‘industry’…
“The signal-to-noise ratio went all wrong.”With the absence of events to report on we’ve noticed more publications writing about publication itself; they have nothing to say, nothing to write, and British broadcasters start writing about lunatics, giving them more attention than ever before (let’s just say the first name is “Dave”). We totally agree with what Stallman wrote some weeks ago and we think that the best approach right now is to “keep calm”™ and stay home. It may seem highly detrimental to one’s civil liberties, but unless we get this plague under control (more or less) things will become even worse, including to civil liberties.
Speaking for myself, to keep informed and aware I read nothing but the raw data and statistics associated with that data. People’s personal tragedies may make good “stories” (or sad stories), but they’re not what matters the most at this time. The signal-to-noise ratio went all wrong. When searching for news about “open source” this past month people may find that nearly half (more than a quarter and likely over a third) of it is something about “COVID-19″ and not code. True story, measurable (quantifiable) too. █
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