Bonum Certa Men Certa

IAM's Latest Take on the UPC: Dead End For Another 2.5 Years (At Least) With No Effective Workarounds

A shipwreck of UPC



Summary: The EPO-connected IAM expresses some rather pessimistic views regarding the Unitary Patent regime, which was constructed secretly by (and for) patent law firms

THE EPO may have gotten a friend (or friends) at IAM, but Battistelli does not always get what he wants (even after backing a pro-UPC event organised by IAM with funding from the EPO's PR firm). "The UPC," some insiders noted, is definitely "not for DG3" (which Battistelli is crushing right now) and earlier today (a Sunday even!) IAM's editor in chief published "It would be politically wrong and morally indefensible to ignore the Brexit vote and plough on with the UPC," echoing a lot of what we have said this past week. Is it realistic, pessimistic, or a sobering sip from a non-Kool-Aid harsh reality for IAM, a longtime advocate of the UPC? Here is the part about expectation of at least 2.5 years before anything happens: "Probably the biggest IP casualty of the Brexit vote is the proposed Unified Patent Court and the EU unitary patent regime. Until the UK leaves the EU its ratification is needed for the system to come into being, so realistically that probably means a minimum of two and a half years’ delay from here. Given all the time and money that has been invested in preparing for what was thought to be its imminent introduction, that’s a big blow."



"Perhaps democracy is treated by patent circles the same way that EU authorities and the UK government treat democracy."Regarding Team UPC's (like so-called 'expert' teams) effort to work around the barrier, here is what IAM says: "Perhaps in part because of that investment, over the last week there have been several suggestions (here and here, for example) that there may be ways to bypass the Brexit vote in order to get the UPC up and running in any case. I think that would be a terrible mistake. [...] The UPC already has its critics. They consider it to be the result of a deal done behind closed doors, designed to benefit nobody but big corporations and patent lawyers. That may be an entirely mistaken viewpoint, but one way to reinforce it and to give it more traction is to ignore the implications of the Brexit vote and to concoct a way for the UK to participate in the UPC."

IAM isn't exactly happy with the situation. The closing words from the editor are "The people have spoken, the bastards."

Yes, that's very professional. Perhaps democracy is treated by patent circles the same way that EU authorities and the UK government treat democracy. The 'bastards'... because back room deals of patent lawyers (complemented by photo-ops of Battistelli with heads of offices and politicians) should apparently instruct elected officials and steer Europe's entire policy on patents in one fell swoop (against people's will and for lawyers, who would profit even more from if the UPC ever became a reality).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October