Bonum Certa Men Certa

IAM is Still Working for Benoît Battistelli and His Toxic Agenda

Updates on those "unitary" patents (which the EPO had said would start in 2016) and UPC are getting laughable, citing "tweets" from members of Team UPC (like Josep Maria Pujals), in turn/later to be cited by more "tweets", creating another "echo chamber" effect (led by IAM, as before)

German and English UPC



Summary: The indefinitely-stalled (likely dead) UPC is brought up again based on mere rumours and speculations, soon to be amplified (as usual) by Team UPC and Team Battistelli

Team Battistelli is still at the EPO, which means that the new President, António Campinos, still interacts with toxic individuals like Bergot, Lutz and Topić. It isn't exactly a soothing mental image, is it?

“UPC: still 24 countries without a constitutional complaint...”
      --Benjamin Henrion (FFII)
The aggressive push for UPC will likely carry on, even if that means breaking laws, violating constitutions, corrupting politicians and so on. We need to watch very closely whatever goes on as much of it is happening behind the scenes. As things stand at the moment, the UPC is unconstitutional and it is dead. It cannot be ratified in Germany, it is definitely not compatible with Brexit (so Britain cannot ever participate) and UPC boosters (litigation lawyers) have attempted to brush under the carpet the latest Constitutional defeat for the UPC. So far it always loses Constitutional challenges, of which there have been very few. As Benjamin Henrion (FFII) put it today, "UPC: still 24 countries without a constitutional complaint..."

"So now they have yet another headache, adding to a total of about half a dozen critical abstacles for the UPC."Here is what a UPC booster noted today: "From comments section - fair question, less fair conclusion: „Was this not foreseeable up-front? Probably the wish of having a training centre for UPC judges in Budapest muffled any contrary thoughts.“" (this links to EPLAW)

So now they have yet another headache, adding to a total of about half a dozen critical abstacles for the UPC. Don't be misled by these people. The UPC is far, faaaaar from materialising. It's a beaurocratic mess because when meticulously analysed it turns out that UPCA is inherently incompatible with national laws. Most politicians never bother checking and they just add their vote/signature without even bothering to read the text (it's too long to properly understand). No 'unitary' patents have been granted and we don't expect such a creature to ever exist.

"No 'unitary' patents have been granted and we don't expect such a creature to ever exist."The latest hurdle is being pointed out by EPO insiders (example from earlier today); they too aren't interested in 'unitary' patents, perhaps realising that the damage caused by any wrongly-granted patent would be multipied. Who would love that other than prosecutors?

Well, patent lawyers, writing on the topic a week prior to that (with a loaded headline too) make it seem imminent (via ), but this is their sales strategy. They tell their clients about 'unitary' patents which will never exist, overselling a fantasy that will result in disappointment (waste of clients' money). They must be getting cold feet; when the UPC is officially dead, what will they tell their clients? Who will ever trust them again?

"...when the UPC is officially dead, what will they tell their clients? Who will ever trust them again?"This brings us to Josep Maria Pujals, whom we mentioned here many times before. He's a longtime UPC booster and he recently wrote a "tweet" about Spain. So IAM made it "news", knowing that facts don't matter as long as Battistelli's agenda (like UPC) gets promoted by it. IAM is nothing but a trashy tabloid sponsored by patent trolls, but we still need to observe and respond to it because some people take it seriously. Earlier today it said: "New Spanish government hints that UPC and unitary patent membership are back on the agenda."

What is that "hint"? Tell us, Joff, please will you tell us? Remember that Battistelli's buddy, Joff Wild, has a long history saying that Spain is about to adopt UPC. He has done this for years, yet it never happens. It's the "real soon now!" strategy. Joff used to live in Spain (Barcelona), so he likes writing about Spain. Here's what he said this morning:

A month after coming to power, the PSOE government in Spain is all set to re-open the debate about whether the country should sign up to the EU unitary patent and Unified Patent Court agreement. According to Josep Maria Pujals of Barcelona-based IP firm Ponti – who has proved an invaluable source for us on a number of Spanish stories – Herick Campos, PSOE’s spokesperson on the industry committee of the Cortes (Spain’s parliament), has stated that the patent and the court are on the government’s radar. To that end, the industry minister Reyes Maroto, within whose department Spain’s Patent...


Oh, and then comes the paywall. So the sole source for this is a longtime UPC booster, who works for the patent 'industry' in Spain. There's no link, no publication is being named, so it seems like little more than unverifiable hearsay from someone who is biased for his living.

"There's no link, no publication is being named, so it seems like little more than unverifiable hearsay from someone who is biased for his living."Bristows then links to it (the IAM 'report'), giving the varnish/appearance of credibility to some Twitter account of a UPC proponent from Spain.

Manuel Rey-Alvite (Bristows) wrote: "Looks like the new Spanish government might be tackling the issue of UP/UPC participation during this term after all."

"This "apparent new appetite" is of the patent law firms in Spain, not Spain itself."Any link? Any source? IAM has none. UPC boosters (lawyers) then add: "Some might speculate as to whether prospect of Brexit has contributed to apparent new appetite of ES to approach the issue more benevolently."

This "apparent new appetite" is of the patent law firms in Spain, not Spain itself. SMEs in Spain oppose it, many politicians rightly oppose it, but hey... Josep Maria Pujals says that he heard somebody say something. That's good enough for IAM. Battistelli will raise a glass to that tonight. "Good job, my son, Joff! More self-fulfilling prophecies please! Quality!"

Suffice to say, it speaks volumes when IAM says not a single word about last week's ILO-AT judgments (union-busting 'cases') or about Judge Corcoran while making a big deal out of a tweet. Yesterday Joff Wild published another astounding puff piece (or hogwash) for Battistelli, saying that he should be proud. Maybe someone at FTI Consulting or Saint-Germain-en-Laye can compensate IAM for these efforts one day. They both got millions from EPO budget (merci beaucoup monsieur Battistelli).

Recent Techrights' Posts

This is What the Slop Bubble Popping Can Look Like
Maybe not an overnight collapse, but getting there gradually
More Confirmatory Rumours Regarding "Massive" Red Hat Layoffs
Ecosystem and sales said to be targeted
Office Meetings Are Most Useful to the Least Productive Workers
In my "office life" days I really didn't like meetings
Claim That the Board of Directors at IBM Isn't Happy With How the Company is Run
IBM tries to project an image of strength to the whole world, especially to its clients
 
If You Don't Want "Linux" to Become "Windows", Then Follow GNU
GAFAM isn't a friend of Linux; it's only a user in the same sense clients are "users" of a brothel
Links 19/01/2026: National Broadcasters on World or Local Affairs Up to a Week Ago
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/01/2026: Game Boy and "The Lounge" (IRC) for the Elderly
Links for the day
Slopfarms in Google News (at Least Three Today) With Fake 'Articles' About "Linux"
Google itself is trying to promote its own slop ("Overview") at the expense of original and credible sources
Links 19/01/2026: ChatGPT’s Defects and The Guardian on Why So-called "AI Companies Will Fail"
Links for the day
IBM Quiet About Its Plan for Red Hat Amid Accelerated Bluewashing
Something is going on at Red Hat
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part V - It Seems Like Some People Are Already Leaving "The Mafia"
they have a rough idea of what's coming
Microsoft Means War, Microsoft is on the Side of ICE
Microsoft, people-ready
Proprietary UNIX is What We'll Have If IBM Red Hat Gets Its Way
IBM Red Hat wants to control everything, even if that means killing everybody
Free Software in Times of Peace (and Times of War, Too)
GAFAM and IBM are war companies
Founder of GNU/Linux (RMS) Speaks in US University (College) This Week
The auditorium has very high capacity and this is his "college comeback" talk in the United States
LinuxSecurity and Linuxiac Are Still Slopfarms, Even Anthony Pell Does It
We suppose waiting another month or another year won't change a thing
Links 18/01/2026: Legal Trouble for xAI, Climate Concerns, Data Breaches and More
Links for the day
'Vibe Coding', Chatbots, and Other Bots (e.g. "Agents" Disguised as "Superintelligence") Aren't Saving You Time
False marketing, FOMO marketing tactics
Gemini Links 19/01/2026: Analog Cameras and Plucker in 2026, US Losing Acceptability in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 18, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, January 18, 2026
Links 18/01/2026: The "Deepfake Porn Site Formerly Known as Twitter" and Turkey to Block Kids' Access to Social Control Media
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/01/2026: Against English as Language of the Net, "Symposium of Destruction"
Links for the day
You Would Expect This Kind of Misleading Narrative Shortly Before Microsoft (or GAFAM) Mass Layoffs
misleading PR
FOSDEM 2026: democracy panel, GNOME & Sonny Piers modern slavery experiment
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Pump-and-Dump With IBM Shares, Courtesy of People Who Stand to Gain From the 'Pump'
"3 Reasons to Buy IBM Stock Right Now"
IBM: Spying on Staff Like Never Before and Implementing Silent Layoffs This Month, Say Insiders
what we heard from whistleblowers seems to corroborate
'Cancel Culture' Doesn't Work (in the Long Run)
Despite all the attacks, I'm enjoying life, I'm keeping productive, and our audience continues to grow
IBM is Not a Free Software Company (It Never Was)
Red Hat's main product, RHEL, is full of secret sauce and has 'secret recipes' (it is basically proprietary)
IBM Turning Up the 'RTO' (Stress) and 'PIP' (Fear) Heat on Workers, Rebellion May be Brewing
Sometimes it feels like today's executives at IBM view IBM workers as a liability
Links 18/01/2026: Indonesia Against Comedy, Media-Hostile (Censors Comedians) Convicted Felon in White House Defecting to Opponents of NATO
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Still up (statCounter Says to 6%) in Bosnia And Herzegovina
Let's see where it is at year's end
Making Layout Changes
Feedback can be sent to us
Behind an Economy of Fake 'Worths' and Fictional 'Valuations' or 'Market Caps'
They normalise white-collar crime and say "everyone is doing it!"
Links 18/01/2026: "South Africa is Running Out of Software Developers", Companies Spooked to Find Slop is a Major Liability
Links for the day
Eventually the Joke (and Financial Fraud) is on Microsoft, Stigmatised for Slop
Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide?
GNU/Linux Leaps to All-time Highs in Virgin Islands
it seems to have started around the "end of 10"
Place Your Bets: Who Will Die First? Microsoft or IBM?
Not even joking; make a guess
Making and Keeping the Sites Accessible
Sometimes less does mean "more" (or "MOAR")
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part IV - How Europe's Largest Patent Office Recruited Drug Addicts, Antisemites, and People Who Absolutely Cannot Do the Job (But Know the 'Right' People)
To better overlap industrial actions we might delay/postpone/pause this series for a bit
Restoring Professional Pride in the Tech Sector
Rejecting slop isn't being a Luddite
Benefiting by Adding Presence in Geminispace
As the Web gets worse, not limited to bloat as a factor, people seek alternatives
Google News Recently Started Syndicating Another Slopfarm, Linuxiac
Even if Google is aware that there is slop there, it's hard to believe that Google will mind
Slop Bubble "Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble"
Edward Zitron Says It like it is
Software Patents and USMCA (or NAFTA)
We recently pondered going back to issuing 2-3 articles per day about patents and common issues with them
IBM Sued Over PIPs
PIPs are "performance improvement plans"
Sites With "Linux" in Their Name That Are in Effect Slopfarms and Issue Fake Articles
We try to name some of the prolific culprits
Gemini Links 18/01/2026: Raising Notifications From Terminal and Environmental Sanity
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 17, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, January 17, 2026
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Links 17/01/2026: Internet Blackout Normalised, Russian Attacks Civilians by Causing Massive Blackouts
Links for the day
Microsoft Lunduke Keeps Distracting From the Real Problems With Rust
Microsoft Lunduke is stigmatising critics
Linuxiac Has Become a Slopfarm, Calling Them Out Isn't Fixing That
What a shame. A once-decent site about "Linux" bites the dust.
Luzern Lion Monument, Albanian Female Whistleblowers: Swiss jurists were cowards
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Splinternet is Already Here, Owing to the Militarisation of Technology (Slop, Social Control Media, Back Doors, and More)
you know what's gonna happen next...
Stack Ranking Against IBM/Red Hat Staff and a Signal of Mass Layoffs (RAs) Justified by Red Hat and IBM as Poor Performance/Misconduct/Other
Working in an atmosphere like this sounds like a nightmare
Gemini Links 17/01/2026: Slow computing and Environment Leak
Links for the day
Links 17/01/2026: US Censorship and Violence Crisis, Growing Anger Levels Against Slop Sold as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Microsoft's "valuation depends on infrastructure that does not exist."
Indeed
The Typical Trajectory: Datamation Began Experimenting With LLM Slop for Fake Articles. Then Datamation Died. (Last Month)
It's always ending up this way
Accounts or Devices (e.g. Phones) That Get 'Burnt' Have Many Pitfalls
Embassies and consulates habitually fail at this
Avoiding the Spooks (Nobody Watches the Watchers, They're Practically Unaccountable)
If more people adopt encryption, it'll be easier for us to deal with whistleblowers
Protecting Whistleblowers Requires Technical Knowledge/Skills
even the highest media judges aren't aware of how to protect sources
At Least 5 Women Quit Brett Wilson LLP in Recent Months. It's the Firm That Attacked My Wife and I on Behalf of Americans (One of Them Strangled Women).
It seems like good news that the women escape this workplace
Slop About Slop and Slop About "Linux"
In short, avoid slopfarms
Report/Benchmark Says 'Vibe Coding' Results in Security Holes
There are risks they don't like talking about
EPO Abuses Covered in Spanish
Knowing what we know (and heard/saw), the sinister silence of the media is perceived by some to be complicity of the lower order.
Richard Stallman Encourages "ICE Out For Good" Protests, His Opponents Do Not (Passive and Uncaring About Human Rights)
He has done a lot philosophically, politically, and so on
Record Traffic in Geminispace or Over Gemini Protocol
it's never too late to join
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part III - Europe's Second-Largest Organisation on Strike, Protests, Other Industrial Actions to Come Impacting Over 95% of the Workforce
The EPO's management is highly evasive, weak, and vulnerable
Claim That IBM Marked 15% of its Workforce for Potential Layoffs
No wonder we keep hearing from Red Hat people who say they hate IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 16, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, January 16, 2026