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As European Software Patents Perish...
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THE UPC isn't legal and it isn't happening. As an associate put it this morning, "regarding the UPC, it is important to drive home the fact that 1) it does not exist, 2) it can no longer come into existence (reason), and 3) some lawyers are actively lying about the UPC, perhaps to the point of criminal fraud..."
"If this is Europe’s idea of “access to justice” and “due process”, are we any better than so-called ‘third-world nations’?"Software patents are being squashed at the EPO; last night I saw this Friday post which said: "On May 19, 2022, all of the original claims of EP 3 471 416 and EP 3 487 179, owned by GE Video Compression LLC (GEVC), were found unpatentable based on two separate challenges filed by Unified. Only after several failed attempts to amend the claims was GEVC able to gain allowance by adding significant narrowing limitations to the claims. The two EP patents were related to U.S. patents that are designated essential to the Access Advance (previously HEVC Advance) patent pool and Sisvel's AV1 and VP9 pools."
That's a pair of software patents. And on the same day: "On May 19, 2022, all of the original claims of EP 2 347 592 B1, formerly owned by Velos Media, LLC and now owned by Qualcomm, were found unpatentable based on a challenge filed by Unified. Only after several failed attempts to amend the claims was Qualcomm able to gain allowance by adding significant narrowing limitations to the claims. However, the narrowing amendments forced into the claims means that these are no longer standard essential. This filing is a part of Unified's ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone."
"Given that the European Patent Organisation is already besieged by the Office, the last thing we want is courts that are also controlled by the Office."Seeing the pattern yet? When properly challenged, software patents perish at the EPO, but it's a long and expensive process. The real solution is not to grant such patents in the first place. The EPO nowadays treats the problem not as an issue of compliance but as an issue of courts actually checking for compliance. Given that the European Patent Organisation is already besieged by the Office, the last thing we want is courts that are also controlled by the Office. As we saw before, even the European Commission is covering up for the Office. There's complicity all around, even the Council of Ministers. ⬆