Bonum Certa Men Certa

IP Kat or IP Troll? IP2Innovate Warns That UPC Would Help Patent Trolls While IP Kat Promotes UPC

Now we have even massive corporations on our side, gently antagonising the Unified Patent Court (UPC)

IP2Innovate
Who's behind IP2Innovate? Some big names.



Summary: The fightback against the UPC finds unexpected allies -- those who are clearly concerned about the detrimental effects that the UPC would have on practicing businesses

THE EPO cannot be replaced per se by the UPC, but UPC-like regimes can transform the EPO in defiance of the EPC and thus violate not only national laws and constitutions but also the very vision and rules, whose violation should be the deprecation of the EPO itself. The whole thing is a disaster in the making and what looks like EPO insiders can't be blamed for being angry at IP Kat for aiding Battistelli's UPC agenda. They continue to slam IP Kat for its UPC lobbying/agenda-driving effort and here is the latest comment about it:



Quite frankly, the opinion of this author whose firm is heavily invested in the UPC is as biased and thus irrelvant as that of the other UPC proponents. They are all in vain trying to cherrypick from the apparent mess something to suit their needs and further their agenda. Whether it's Tilmann, Mooney, Hoyng or now Mr Smyth.

They start suble exercises of interpreting official statements e.g. by the government or even the CJEU (Opinion 1/09), giving them a meaning that was certainly never thought of nor intended. The technique is always the same and one is left to wonder whether these people, apparently lacking any meaningful level of creativity, do really think that they can still be taken seriously.

An inevitable part of their story always is the remark "How numerous are likely to be CJEU referrals by the UPC anyway?" Quite frankly, as it has been pointed out elsewhere (bit.ly/2k0nOCV), in the end it may well be that CJEU involvement will not be as limited as now alleged. Of course, this allegation likewise serves the purpose of trying to paint the UPC picture that everything will be fine and coherent, but in reality it is not. The stage has already been set for allowing the CJEU to assume interpretation competence also with regard to interpreting material patent law, some unwary commentators have clearly said so, Mr Tilmann being amongst them. The main purpose of the 'compromise' on Articles 6 to 8 apparently was to hide this CJEU competence for later, until it can be 'activated'.

But, of course, how would any UPC proponent ever be willing or able to just notice the facts and discuss on this basis, they rather prefer to build their own reality and sell this to others as facts.


As some people may have noticed, there is now a corporations-backed push which antagonises the UPC. That's what we have been waiting for. Suffice to say, low patent quality leads to and supports patent trolls, as clearly shown in the US, China, etc. Battistelli actively supports trolls if he persists with that UPC crusade of his. Even large companies are growing nervous about it and some are eager to push back. One UPC observer/critic wrote that "patent trolls cases outside the US-German courts see more than 2/3 of all patent litigation held in Europe [...] [quoting the relevant document] 'Germany (and China, another bifurcated country) offers the best patentee win rate in infringement actions' #unitarypatent #UPC #NPEs"

This is recognition of the contribution of UPC to trolling. The relevant citation for this is "The Rise of Non-Practicing Entity (NPE) Cases Outside the United States", citing “Global Patent Litigation: How and Where to Win” from Michael C. Elmer and C. Gregory Gramenopoulos.

The UPC would be ever more useful to trolls now that a lot of bad patents are being granted in error. Last night we saw this puff piece titled "EPO Grants Record Number of European Patents in 2016", but a better headline would be: "EPO doesn't do quality control, just grants patents like a factory."

This isn't the fault of examiners by the way but the fault of policy (i.e. management).

Many of us software developers are concerned. The fear of patent trolls in Europe is real and was covered last night by Florian Müller, whose company would definitely be an attractive and ripe target for trolls. Several people associated with FFII have already felt the wrath of trolls (it devastated their employers). Here is a new article about the story which we believe a press release 'broke' (with Müller first to cover it):

‘Trolls’ file a “staggering” 20% of patent lawsuits in Germany, according to an advocacy coalition with members including Adidas, Google, Intel and Spotify.

IP2Innovate, formed last year, alleged that that EU is facing an “explosion” of patent infringement suits from patent trolls that are abusing Europe’s legal system for financial gain.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, April 4, the advocacy group demanded urgent action from the European Commission.


Here is the key part: "Patrick Oliver, executive director of IP2Innovate, said: “The risk will only increase with the implementation of the Unified Patent Court, which will make Europe an even more attractive venue for patent abuses. The European Commission must get tough with US patent trolls.”"

Indeed. Thank you, Sir.

It's time for everyone -- EPO insiders included -- to recognise that the UPC is an enemy of Europe and only a friend of few large corporations and their patent lawyers, who regularly lie 'on behalf' of SMEs.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Means of Production and Rusting Out
Links for the day
Links 04/09/2025: Science, Hardware, and Eyes on China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Digital Minimalism and Social Control Media
Links for the day
IBM's GNU/Linux Divestment, Based on Hard But Anecdotal Evidence (IBM Fails to Recognise How Much Money It Made and Can Still Make From "Linux")
Love us or hate us, a lot of what we've been saying about Red Hat under IBM turns out to be rather accurate
Links 04/09/2025: Massive Microsoft Staff Cuts (Barely Reported), "Strange Conspiracy Theory Is Reportedly Spreading Inside OpenAI"
Links for the day
Activists Can Win, But Keep an Eye on the Ball and on the Trophy
GitHub is dying, it was a loss-making trap, not free hosting
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Katrina Remembered, Distracted Driving, and Virtual Economics
Links for the day
At This Point It's No Longer Matthew Garrett But People Who Fund Matthew Garrett (or Companies That Fund His SLAPPs Against My Wife and I)
The only thing worse than misogynists are misogynists who fail to respect other people's right to go on holiday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 03, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 03, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VI - This Serious Harm Was Planned for Over a Decade, Not an Accident or Merely Some Misfortune
The term "Serious Harm" is legally meaningful here
GNOME Unfit for Diversity and Inclusion
GNOME's leadership is using "bad words"
Brodie Robertson Addressing the Recently-Discovered Comments
Most people probably knew nothing about this until he wrote a response
Red Hat QA Team "Had Shrunk by Half Over the Past Year." (After IBM Divestment)
If Red Hat's workforce is being moved to the East, then RHEL can become a national security problem
Slopwatch: "Open Source" and "Linux" News Faked, Made by Bots and Entered Into Google News
Spam combined with slop about "Linux" has entered Google News