Remember what they did right before Brexit?

Summary: How the media, including the Financial Times, has been used (and even paid!) by the EPO in exchange for self-serving (to the EPO) messages and articles

THE EPO gives over a million Euros per year to a US-based and rather notorious PR firm. The EPO is essentially corrupting the European media at the expense of EPO budget, i.e. taxpayers and/or fee payers.

A very core part (if not flag bearer) of Team UPC, Bird & Bird, gets a platform or gets embedded in a new article (behind paywall) and then brags about it by saying: "Our @twobirdsIP partner, Rob Williams, speaks to the @FT about the effect of Brexit on the Unitary Patent Court" ("speaks to" means it's a puff piece in the form of an interview, like those puff pieces that Managing IP has been doing with Battistelli, after prefiltering questions based on what some other journalists told us the EPO likes to do -- a form of sanitisation).

The Financial Times was paid (one might even say bribed) by the EPO for UPC puff pieces several months ago, with a huge budget at Battistelli's disposal derived or extracted for lobbying purposes. The EPO gave money to media companies including the Financial Times and it even did this at a strategic time, almost certainly in order to influence the British referendum. Political meddling from such an institution should, in its own right, be a major scandal.

Regarding the piece itself (behind a paywall, so we must go by clues), based on the headline it's once again the Milan fantasies, pretending that Milan can magically become London. It's utter nonsense.

A more realistic take on the UPC came today from Dr. Glyn Moody. Unfortunately, his main citation points to CIPA, which has been working closely with the EPO on this (to undermine/steal democracy). Here is a portion of his article, which links to IP Kat:

It will still be possible for the UK to participate in the pan-EU Unified Patent Court (UPC) system after Brexit, according to a new legal opinion, but only if the UK is willing to "submit itself to the supremacy of EU law in the field of patent disputes." Once established, the UPC will rule on cases involving unitary patents, which proponents say will reduce the costs of using and litigating patents in the EU.

Before the Brexit referendum, the UK was one of the main supporters of the idea of setting up the UPC. The UK government has already signed a lease for the London section of the Central Division and the UK Local Division of the new court system. Whether or not it can still participate in the UPC is therefore a crucial question.

A post on the IPKat blog explains that the legal opinion was put together for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA). The institute has been "lobbying for positive participation in the UPC after putting in so much work in advance of preparing the system," and therefore is keen for the UK to remain a part of the UPC system even post-Brexit.

Benjamin Henrion already told him, "too bad you did not mention Stjerna paper. And Council meeting in 2 days."

Based on Bristows of Team UPC (update today): "The UPC Preparatory Committee is meeting on 10 October 2016 in Paris. Regarding the Competitiveness Council, as the UPC is an ‘AOB’ item for this week’s meeting there is not likely to be any substantive discussion; the Council’s next meeting is on 28/29 November 2016."

The "EU Council [is] to meet this Thursday, 29 September to discuss UPC and unitary patent," they noted separately. As a reminder, Bristows of Team UPC is scheming to undermine both British and EU democracy. All it cares about are its own selfish interests. More patent litigation would mean more business for Bristows and its ilk (companies like Bird & Bird)

Here, incidentally, is a person in favour of the UPC saying that the UK should not ratify and explains why. The following comment was published today ("Meldrew" seems to be a British patent attorney):

I agree with Meldrew that it is better to be in the system than out - but otherwise disagree. Ratifying now creates problems we do not currently have (and we have plenty as it is) - it could lead to the UPC and UP commencing when it is uncertain whether the UK can or will remain in the project. If it can't, but the UK has ratified in the meantime and the system commences, the situation for UPs covering the UK, the existence and locations of the UK local division and central division branch, the position of the UK judges and the enforceability of UPC judgments handed down pre Brexit are all unclear. None of these are sensible uncertainties to create in the hope that it will all be sorted out through some pragmatic political discussion. Nor do I believe the remaining EU member states will somehow reward the UK for being neighbourly in allowing the UPC to commence without delay, or punish us for not doing so - it is likely to be an irrelevance in the overall negotiations.

This doesn't even touch on whether ratification now of what is a treaty between EU member states (even if technically not an EU instrument), which requires recognising the supremacy of EU law (in general, not expressly limited to patent law), is politically possible. It is impossible in my view to reconcile ratification with the referendum vote (which went the wrong way, as far as I am concerned), at least until the Brexit terms are known and agreed (and are such that it is politically consistent to ratify).

I am a realist. And sadly, the pragmatic - and sensible - thing to do is simply not to ratify, then wrap the whole UP/UPC/UK discussion in with general Brexit negotiations. This of course means delay since it is difficult to see how the remaining member states can actually proceed without the UK while it remains an EU member state and a signatory to the UPC Agreement. If we end up out, then the UPC can go ahead without the UK at that point, if the momentum remains. If we are in, so much the better, though I see dragons and lions in the path there.

And for what it's worth, I am a supporter of the UPC/UP system even though I do not believe it to be quite as good or as "necessary for industry" as many have said it is.

Don't be fooled by the UPC fantasies. The UPC isn't happening, but Team UPC wants us to think otherwise so that guards are taken down and opposition reverts back to defeatism. ⬆