Summary: The plot to monopolise more of what is public (e.g. public domain, common knowledge) gradually unravels as people secretly (dodging public participation) congregate to centralise power structures, opportunistic predation, costly litigation, and enforcement of demands from corporations (like I.S.D.S.)

IT IS saddening to see that despite some patent progress which is being made in the US, owing for the most to SCOTUS^*, other countries/islands/continents regress and essentially derail their own economy. It's a class war waged between multinational corporations, i.e. plutocrats without borders, and everyone else, irrespective of nationality. It's a large-scale heist cleverly disguised as harmonisation of national and international laws.

Not too long ago we explained how the software patents debate in New Zealand was being bypassed or worked around in secret. Some vigilant people caught this secretive ploy and alerted the media, calling for action while fighting back against software patents. Now there is a press release and resultant/accompanying media coverage from the local/national media, even ZDNet outside the country [1, 2, 3, 4]. Will this be enough? Well, it's only the beginning of what could become a very long struggle. New Zealand has already devised the same loophole that Europe is sneakily using in order to allow software patenting, provided it's tied to some unspecified device.

Speaking of Europe, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) 'harmonisation' ploy is well under way as here in Britain, without public consent (no referendum, no polling, not even a Parliamentary debate), the London division of the UPC [is surprisingly] announced". Yes, the patent parasites (practitioners) just jump the gun and according to this report, "UK Intellectual Property Office has announced the new location of the London section of the Unified Patent Court."

So UK-IPO basically ignores the standard authorities and procedures, just like the EPO's management. One might say that they virtually operate outside the law, much like the Mafia. They know what's good for them and they don't bother consulting the public. According to IP Kat, a blog of patent maximalists from London, the Enlarged Board (tackling EPO disputes) finally has something to reveal.

Just like these secret (and now notorious) 'trade' deals which we rarely write about (even though more is known about them now), these patent conspiracies (or collusions) serve to just enrich a meta-industry of people who profit from taxation of real practitioners -- people whose practice is producing stuff like software and machines. ⬆ _____ ^* According to Patent Buddy, the SCOTUS ruling in Alice keeps squashing software patents. "New PTO eMod system," allegedly (no link to the source), "seamlessly generates automated €§ 101 rejection on every appl'n, saving the PTO millions of $$ a year in exam costs."