Notice the date

Summary: Benoît Battistelli is no longer in Office and his fantasy (patent lawyers' fantasy) is as elusive as ever; Team UPC is trying to associate opposition to UPC with the far right (AfD) once again

TRUSTING predictions from lawyers is always a risky gambit. 4 years ago we wrote about the UPC [1, 2] on numerous occasions, at times highlighting the words of the EPO (as above), heralding that UPC was just about to start (it had done that for years prior). Here we are, in the middle of March, approaching 2020 with a decision on UPC perhaps not arriving sooner than next year (some say 2021) and Brexit uncertainty further contributes to delays. As the comments here serve to emphasise, there are additional fatal blows to the UPC -- a “regulatory capture” akin to something that happened in Germany half a century ago.

Speaking of Germany, Bristows' UPC boosters are trying to associate opposition to UPC with AfD, as usual (yesterday once again, just like before). These tactics are very familiar. As the saying goes, when you want some cause to fail you just associate it with AfD and then the public dares not support it.

New articles such as "Brexit: Bracing for IP Changes" and "A no-deal Brexit – what next for the pharma industry?" (obviously written by law firms, not journalists) have also just been published. UPC is hardly even mentioned in these because it's widely presumed to be dead. Even law firms have more or less given up on it -- more so over time. ⬆