THEY JUST NEVER give up, do they? Perseverance is therefore required from both sides.
"Team UPC, a small group of self-serving patent law firms, is trying to steal democracy and hijack the law in a truly undemocratic if not antidemocratic move."IP Kat (whose staff/writers include Bristows LLP staff who exploited the platform for UPC lobbying for a number of years now) published this piece in the afternoon. It must be like the hundredth so-called 'analysis' of Brexit and the UPC (we put analysis in scare quotes because these are typically composed by Team UPC or think tanks/pressure/interest groups like CIPA).
As we have demonstrated here many times in the past, the UPC is extremely undesirable to the vast majority of European businesses and after a Brexit referendum it is dead and buried, no doubt about it at all. Unless... Team UPC can pull some dirty tricks that they have up their sleeves, hence our eternal vigilance.
"So," says IP Kat, "while it may be legally possible for the UK to overcome the requirements of Opinion 1/09 by a new agreement, it could still be very politically sticky to sell a treaty which proposes the ongoing supremacy of EU law over the UK - even within the relatively limited context of patent disputes before the UPC."
"They brainwash public officials, throw incentives at them, and then pressure Battistelli's British photo op mate, Lucy."In other words, any attempt to ratify the UPC right now would be extremely antidemocratic and flirting with "corrupt".
Meanwhile, as pointed out to us by one reader, one of the latest so-called 'analyses' of the UPC and Brexit came from Edward Nodder from Bristows LLP (attempting to rebrand as "Bristows UPC" in order to capitalise on change/transitions induced by their own lobbying). The wording is extremely revealing and it piggybacks Battistelli cronies like Margot Fröhlinger [1, 2, 3, 4]. The villainous Bristows (Team UPC) dare say "that not only will the pressure for UK ratification of the UPC Agreement continue, but [...] a decision is wanted within weeks."
So they play dirty. Bristows has, all along, been a major contributor to this dirty play.
"Nodder did not dare point out that not a single person at AIPPI (which he wrote about) believed the UPC would happen (based on a quick straw poll at the event)."To quote further: "Despite universal agreement that the UPC would be better with UK participation, there is an unwillingness, in some quarters at least, to wait for the UK. Dr Froehlinger said that under the EU principles of sincere cooperation, the UK should either ratify or withdraw from the UPC Agreement. She said that under streamlined procedures other countries could make modest amendments to the existing Agreement and re-ratify quickly - within months - and hence go ahead without the UK. Thierry Sueur believed the unitary patent and UPC system to be important for innovation and growth in Europe. In such a new regime London would lose the pharmaceutical branch of the UPC’s central division, but Dr Froehlinger would not be drawn upon whether the political negotiations on the fate of this branch (which city or cities would host it) would involve only France and Germany, or other countries, nor would she speculate on how long such negotiations might take."
Nodder did not dare point out that not a single person at AIPPI (which he wrote about) believed the UPC would happen (based on a quick straw poll at the event). Bristows are enemies of European interests and they will definitely continue to fight for the UPC. It's their project (along with few other law firms and EPO facilitators). It's our project to ensure they do not succeed as it would undermine Europe for very few people's enrichment and power hoard. ⬆