02.18.16
Gemini version available ♊︎The EPO’s Patent Coup in Europe Moves on With Conflict of Interests-Plagued German Authorities for UPC
Summary: Germany, careful not to reveal its bias and gross nepotism (not to mention self interest) in this matter, is starting to push for the Unitary Patent Court (UPC), which would potentially destroy Europe’s wealth by passing a lot of it to very few (already affluent and usually non-European) actors
THERE is an increasingly urgent and incredibly big EPO scandal that many EPO insiders haven't been paying enough attention to (or were thoroughly misinformed on, as part of the secretive and expensive PR campaign for UPC, let aside the internal censorship). Dr. Glyn Moody wrote about it earlier this month and the EPO's official responses to him only served to reinforce beliefs that the UPC is quite a scandal (against democracy) in the making. The vast majority of European citizens know nothing at all about the UPC, probably by intention — as obscurity serves the UPC's architects and lobbyists. The UPC is not for Europeans. It’s steered by scope maximalists, as FOSDEM recently explained (Stallman too spoke about it).
“The vast majority of European citizens know nothing at all about the UPC, probably by intention — as obscurity serves the UPC’s architects and lobbyists.”“Breaking news is that Germany has produced draft bills for implementing the UPC,” wrote this new commenter, who spreads terrible news that we have been dreading for months (EPO-funded media repeatedly pressured Germany — even by shaming — to do this).
“BMJ is financed with EPO fees,” Benjamin Henrion correctly noted, “and they do have a bad record with the swpat [software patents] directive, where they trumped the econ ministry” (we previously wrote about this role of nepotism in UPC promotion inside Germany, putting the country’s justice system/ministry to great shame, having led the way in software patents promotion). Spain shows the better way forward and explains the reasons.
Here is the comment in question in its entirety:
Breaking news is that Germany has produced draft bills for implementing the UPC.
https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/RefE_Uebereinkommen_EinheitlichesPatentgericht.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2
https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/RefE_Begleitgesetz_EuropaeischePatentreform.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3
My German may be a little rusty, but I cannot see anything in the two published documents that indicates how German national law will be amended in the light of the substantive provisions of the unitary patent package.
Can anyone shed any light on this situation? I would have thought that at least some modifications of national patent law would be necessary.
“The document of your second link,” added another commenter, “proposes all necessary amendments of German Law, particularly for the international patent act and the patent act. But the first link is the more interesting…”
“UPC is a cash cow for patent lawyers in Germany.”According to this morning’s post from IP Kat: “In its proposal for the legislation implementing the Unified Patent Package in Germany, the German Ministry of Justice suggests a compromise: double patenting vis-a-vis unitary patents is not prohibited, but if an action regarding a unitary patent for the same invention is pending before the Unified Patent Court or is made pending during the national proceeding or has been finally adjudicated by the UPC, then the German court will dismiss the action brought based on the national patent insofar as the patents concern the same invention, provided that the defendant raises the objection before the beginning of the oral hearing (see proposed Article 18 Gesetz über internationale Patentübereinkommen, p. 6 of the linked PDF).”
UPC is a cash cow for patent lawyers in Germany. They would make a lot of money from it, and guess at whose expense…
No wonder it’s mostly patent lawyers who are pushing for the UPC, usually behind closed doors. It’s an attack on democracy. It is a coup. The UPC is yet another rogue project, maybe on par with (or along with) efforts such as TPP. They are hoping to bypass the European public and covertly impose the 1%’s wishes on all who live inside Europe. Deception, propaganda etc. come into play as soon as the public begins to discover what’s going on, whereupon it antagonises. That’s when they start pretending that it’s good for European SMEs and perpetually spread other such myths.
“BristowsUPC”, an LLP rebranded for UPC marketing, has just written about the above. Longtime UPC booster Annsley Merelle Ward (also of IP Kat) said: “The German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) yesterday published the first draft of legislation that will make it possible for Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement. The draft bill was published, together with a second draft bill to implement the Unitary patent system into German law. After a period of consultation, it is anticipated that final draft bills will be introduced into the German parliament before summer 2016. These will then pass through the legislative process in parliament for debate, any amendment, and then a final vote.”
“The EPO’s autocracy is now expanding onto other European institutions.”Only patent lawyers (and their media) rejoice right now (see the positivity, with optimistic phrases like “A significant development for the #UPC.”) while the rest of the public is totally unaware. It is an unacceptable attack on European democracy. “DE, UK & 2 more need to ratify for #UPC to begin,” said the patent maximalists (MIP in this case). As Henrion put it last night: “There should be a call to abolish fiscal priviledges for royalties over any type of IP right, and tax it as the same level as labour #fraud”
The EPO’s autocracy is now expanding onto other European institutions. This too is a cause for alarm. They don’t care what the public thinks; they just do whatever the heck they decided is good for Europe (or for themselves and their mates). It’s like with the EPO the EU is increasingly shadowing the worst practices of the Kremlin; oh, lo and behold whose hands Battistelli is now shaking (warning: epo.org link). To quote the latest puff piece showing Battistelli in Russia: “On the occasion of a visit to the EPO in Munich by Grigory Petrovich Ivliev, the new Director General of Rospatent (the Russian Federal Service for IP), the two institutions have committed to further strengthen their co-operation.”
That was published yesterday. It’s self-serving propaganda disguised as ‘news’ (and Google News indexes it as such).
“While the EPO says (right there on national television) that it intends to ignore the law and refuse to obey the highest court at The Hague it sure feels comfortable to do its patent brainwashing right there at The Hague.”Congratulations, Mr. Battistelli. Having just collaborated with Cubans (who parked Russian nukes just a short distance away from your American masters), you now go visit their old masters in Moscow. Having refused to obey orders from The Hague (renowned for international criminal justice), your obedient PR bunnies now set up shop in The Hague. Irony is not dead yet. While the EPO says (right there on national television) that it intends to ignore the law and refuse to obey the highest court at The Hague it sure feels comfortable to do its patent brainwashing right there at The Hague.
The EPO is officially a rogue institution out of control. The UPC is its latest project and the main threat to this project is European democracy (meaning, people actually becoming aware of what’s going on and then voting on it, i.e. against it). █
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