01.17.17

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

More Fake News About the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Based on Lobbying Tactics From Bristows UPC and the Preparatory Committee

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 5:39 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“When asked by Ars, the EPO’s spokesperson mentioned the imminent arrival of the unitary patent system as an important reason for revising the EPO’s internal rules…”

–Dr. Glyn Moody

Summary: Unified Patent Court (UPC) lobbying has gotten so bad that it now infiltrates general media outlets, where people are asked to just blindly assume that the UPC is coming and is inevitable, even though it’s clearly in a limbo and is unlikely to see the light of day

THE UPC Big Lie refuses to die. There is so much money at stake and those who hope to grab that money will just lie ad infinitum. Yesterday, Alan Johnson from Bristows (chronic liars [1, 2, 3]) wrote this blog post in the firm’s growingly-neglected site (as the UPC is clearly in a limbo).

“They have a TERRIBLE, truly appalling track record on facts.”Bristows has made false predictions so many times in the past that anyone with a braincell should learn to simply ignore them by now. But no; those who want to believe (like alien enthusiasts) just keep boosting all that nonsense. Whatever seems more optimistic is deemed better, but basing anything one publishes based on the liars from Bristows is not safe. They have a TERRIBLE, truly appalling track record on facts.

Here we have Alexander Esslinger (a.k.a. “Patently German”) propping up the latest nonsense from Bristows et al by saying “Provisional phase of #UPC to start in May 2017; fully operational in December 2017″ (he is actually citing Withers & Rogers, whose employee Dave Croston has just published fake news about the UPC).

“Many people have already explained why UPC is definitely inseparable from the EU.”“Unified Patent Court to be operational by December 2017 says the Preparatory Committee,” says this firm liking to this blurb from Team UPC. The Preparatory Committee is basically like a group of UPC boosters; they’re not independent actors. “Funfair fortunetellers predicting the future,” one person called it. If credibility depends on past predictions, Bristows and Team UPC should be regarded as chronic liars and repeating lies from Team UPC is hardly good journalism. They said 2015 about UPC ratifications, then 2016, now they say 2017. When will people learn to distrust people who continuously lie in an attempt to pressure/compel politicians to make an error, under the false impression of UPC inevitability?

Watch WIPR bragging about their “top story”, which is basically not fact-checked. The title is also misleading, as “can” (in the body) becomes “due to become” (in the headline). Never mind that Lucy Neville-Rolfe (whom they quote/cite) left or has been sacked after just months at her job.

“If the UPC became a reality, British businesses would be subjected to court rulings from places like Brussels.”According to this new tweet, Lucy’s successor “Jo Johnson who said ‘ #UPC isn’t an EU institution’ http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2015/intellectural-property-ev4-16-17/ … at 11:08″

Well, Jo Johnson (who is very young for a politician) is wrong. Maybe he is still clueless because he’s new at the job and has no prior experience in this area. Many people have already explained why UPC is definitely inseparable from the EU. See for example this older series:

Johnson clearly does not understand how the UPC works if he claims it not to be an EU institution, or at least something that is disconnected from the EU. If the UPC became a reality, British businesses would be subjected to court rulings from places like Brussels.

Going back to the aforementioned fake news, citing WIPR, Patent Attorneys like this one hope to convince us that the UPC is coming (never mind if the UPC Preparatory Committee has itself put the brakes on it). The Preparatory Committee is nothing but chronic liars and self-serving manipulators. Just look at their affiliations! And WIPR trusts them (along with Bristows) enough to say — in the headline even! — that “UPC due to become operational in December 2017″?

Sorry, but this is fake news. It’s lobbying by misinformation. Here is how the article starts:

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) preparatory committee has announced that the UPC can become operational in December this year.

Today, January 16, the committee announced that it is now “working under the assumption” that the provisional application phase will start at the end of spring 2017, “presumably in May”.

The committee said that the court can become operational in December 2017.

It confirmed that judicial interviews can begin and “appointments eventually confirmed”.

In October last year, WIPR reported that the UPC had postponed the recruitment of UPC judges in light of the Brexit vote.

“The current timetable is being revisited in light of the result of the referendum in the UK, which will to some extent delay the entry into operation of the UPC,” it said at the time.

In November last year, former UK Minister of State for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, made the announcement that the UK will implement the unitary patent and UPC.

“With UK ratification expected in April,” Benjamin Henrion quoted from this. But he is quoting the group of liars, Bristows UPC, who have been repeatedly misleading the public about it and are now promoting their blog post along with their marketing hashtag. Perhaps they hope to attract attention to their business by making ludicrous claims. We don’t know for sure…

The bottom line is, a lot of what we’re seeing in the media, manipulated by Team UPC, is fake news. We must respond to that in order to avoid confusion. These people are playing dirty. █

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.