Bonum Certa Men Certa

The General Consensus is That UPC is Dead, Which Means Many European Patents Are Also Dead (or Zombies)

The courts or the system governing these courts won't be thrown into rogue hands

Amsterdam signs



Summary: Judging by comments and "tweets" seen around the Web right now, as opposed to blog posts composed by Team UPC (sometimes anonymously because people don't like to lie using their real names/affiliations), the UPC/A will never make a comeback; the fate of many European Patents granted in a hurry and under unprecedented pressure is likely the same, albeit it can take decades to clean up this mess (the European Patents that are in fact Invalid Patents)

THE TRUTH of the matter is that Europe already has patent courts and the law is mostly unified, albeit there are subtle differences. These many courts reject a lot of the patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO), especially under the oversight (abuse rather) of António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli. The courts would almost always reject software patents in Europe (just like American courts reject such patents because of 35 U.S.C. €§ 101, no matter what the USPTO says).



"The UPC is basically dead at this point."The death of the UPC means that a lot of European Patents don't stand a chance. They were never supposed to be granted at all.

The UPC is basically dead at this point. Yesterday we added two updates about the news from the UK. Looking at the comments, not a single person suggests that the UPC still stands a chance. Nobody at all. Even prior to that news people already expressed deep scepticism. Jan Van Hoey wrote yesterday at 2:13 (very shortly after the news came out):

Not mentioning the 4 other constitutional complaints against the EPO for violation of the “rule of law” (art2 TFEU), the EPO cannot be sued for maladministration.

So the BMJV knows about those 4 pending cases, but want to mull the UPCA through because the Brexit transition period ends on 31st December 2020.

I guess Mr Breton will find a legal way to say the UK is out of the UPCA by the 1st January 2021. He could just recall the decision of the FCC saying the UPCA is only open to EU member states.


"Political perspective" said (in the same context):

I have been starting to wonder whether the UPCA will actually survive a potential second constitutional complaint. True, the Constitutional Court raised several aspects that did not have to be decided last time but also true, at that time the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court consisted of a majority of rather EU sceptical Judges (cf. the latest ECB judgment). However, there have been some changes of staff in the Second Senate recently which arguably has shifted the majority towards being rather EU-friendly.

Against this background, I would not be surprised if the Constitutional Court would let the UPC pass next time (even though in my opinion there are a couple of issues that are very problematic).

Or, in the words of Hon. Charles Evans Hughes: “the constitution is what the Judges say it is (…).”


This was likely posted before the news from the UK arrived and LightBlue added: "After the “Schweinsgalopp” (helter-skelter rush?) perhaps it is time for a “Denkpause” after the UK’s withdrawal from the agreement." Then "MaxDrei" wrote:

Prompted by Thorsten’s excellent piece, it occurs to me that there is a way forward, if there is a will amongst the surviving EU Member States.

I recall somebody suggesting that the biggest obstacle to the adoption of English as the single working language of the EU was UK membership. The UK would be perceived as having an unfair advantage. But now the UK has gone, is there any Member state left with English as its ONLY national language? Even the republic of Ireland has the Gaelic. The way is more free now, for FR and DE gracefully to step back, and agree that English shall be the single working language of the EU. That’s one example of new opportunities opening up with the secession of the “United” Kingdom.

Back in the 1970’s, Europe built the EPC, a wonderful achievement which has proved to be the model, the template, the benchmark, for patent law world-wide. A common regime for patent litigation was, however, a step too far. But perhaps today, with the UK having walked off the playing field, the moment has arrived, when the EU could write a template for international patent litigation? What a statement that would be, that there is life in Old Europe yet.

We have a G7 and we have a G20. There are moves afoot to create a G10. Excellent idea. Given enough of a following wind from Flinten Uschi and the EU Commission, the EU could put together a plan for international patent litigation which, for our generation, does for patent infringement disputes as super a job as the EPC did, and increasingly does, better and better, for international patent validity disputes. In the favourite words of Boris Johnson, even “world-beating”. Why not for patent litigation too? Let’s be bold and brash, in areas where it is still possible.


Suffice to say, people don't need to dislike the EU and like Brexit to realise that this whole 'unitary' patent thing is a sham and a disgrace. If anything, this whole UPC thing is the type of thing that causes 'brexits'. It unifies nothing but aggressive patents lawyers with their sick agenda.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025