Bonum Certa Men Certa

Slovenian Patent Office as a Hostage

The copyright 'cartel' (collective interest of the few who collude to the exclusion/detriment of the vast majority) and the patent litigation 'cartel' do not represent the interest of the country, but they have a lot of money and connections

Luka Novak in a Slovenian article
Original text in Slovenian



Summary: Further to the latest part in the series about Benoît Battistelli's illegal EPO regulations we present here the English translation of an important article from Slovenia, which at the moment helps Team UPC and António Campinos promote the patently unlawful and unconstitutional (across nations) UPC

The following is a translation of an article cited minutes ago. It merits wider reach/visibility now that 'Team UPC' is basically commandeering Slovenia in pursuit of illegal, unconstitutional, and economically ruinous agenda:



IPO: a 'hostage' to disputes over millions



Uroš Å kerl Kramberger

30. August 2013

The Intellectual Property Office will be without a director from tomorrow. Luka Novak has been sacked without explanation and the government has not (yet) managed to find a new one. Andrej Å ifrer, the singer-songwriter, has dropped out, and no one else wants the post of Director because of tensions with copyright organisations.

Luka Novak is returning (involuntarily) to publishing from the Intellectual Property Office.

Luka Novak will spend his last day in the director's office of the Intellectual Property Office today. He was dismissed abruptly and without explanation by the government one month ago, and yesterday's cabinet meeting has yet to find a new director.

Until the day before yesterday, musician Andrej Å ifrer was a candidate for the post of Director, but because he did not meet the formal conditions, his candidacy was dropped. Å ifrer declined to comment on the developments.

"To this day, I still don't know why I was removed", says Luka Novak. "They mentioned a reorganisation of the office, but I was not officially informed of anything."

Government spokesman Boštjan Lajovic assured us yesterday that an acting director would be appointed at the end of Novak's mandate, which will be on Saturday. The "right" person would be found among the current staff of the Office. The Ministry responsible for economic affairs explained that the search for an acting director is still ongoing.

However, our discussions with insiders yesterday showed that the relationship between politics, the profession and the collective copyright management organisations that the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is supposed to oversee is too heated for the post of Director to be tempting at all, even on a temporary basis.

Amongst others, we spoke to two IP experts who have already been asked to take over the running of the Office but have turned it down. Novak also explained to us that the appointment of an acting Director would not be urgent. In fact, it is possible to appoint an "interim commissioner" - just enough to keep the office running. This "has happened several times in the history of the Office".

The fact that Andrej Å ifrer, the music composer, aspires to become Director is symptomatic of the issues at stake in Novak's view: copyright and the collecting societies (such as SAZAS and ZAMP) that administer authors' rights are given too much weight, according to Novak.

Most of our interlocutors yesterday, who did not wish to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject, pointed out that the work of the Office is only to a minor extent devoted to authors' rights, and to a major extent to rights deriving from economic activities, such as industrial property and patents.

"Copyright is handled by one and a half people at the Office, while forty people deal with other areas", one of our interlocutors noted, for example. Experts advised us that a solution that might be appropriate, as is also known from other countries, would be to move the regulation of copyright law under the Ministry of Culture.

The problem is that the Office, which deals with a wide range of rights protection - from patents and protection certificates to trademarks and geographical indications - has for years been "hostage" to disputes between collecting societies such as SAZAS, IPF and AIPA, which have been unable to agree on how to collect and distribute money, and the disputes have spilled over into politics.

These are organisations that are overseen by the URSIL, but at the same time are difficult to control because of the large amounts of money that flow through them from users to authors. Our interlocutors pointed out that past directors, such as Jurij Žurej, have tried to regulate relations between the Office and the organisations and between the organisations themselves, but that resentment and antagonism have only deepened.

SAZAS collects and distributes more than ten million Euros each year to authors, IPF just over one million Euros and AIPA a similar amount. All organisations retain part of the money for their own operations.


It should be noted that problems such as these aren't unique to Slovenia; it's a big problem associated with businesses controlling the government and misusing their financial might.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
 
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day