Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patent Trolls in Europe and the Looming Collapse of the UPC

Summary: Imminent election in the UK, as well as several other factors, may threaten to throw the UPC into even greater uncertainty just when patent trolls are beginning to flock to Europe with the intention of capitalising on it

THE EPO is out of control, whereas the US patent system is gradually being reformed by the Supreme Courts (with two more important decisions last month).



“EPO and its patent court will not have that corrective.”
      --Jan Wildeboer‏
As Red Hat's Jan Wildeboer‏ put it the other day, "let's thank $DEITY that #SCOTUS puts shit in its place. EPO and its patent court will not have that corrective."

In Germany, software development professionals such as Wildeboer‏ are growingly concerned about an upsurge of software patents and patent trolls that exploit these. Trolls are coming to Europe, including to London (we wrote about that some week/months ago when the trolls got their way in court) and IAM, funded by trolls and located somewhere in the London area, is satisfied about that. It even wrote a confirmatory article about it earlier this week.

"In Germany, software development professionals such as Wildeboer‏ are growingly concerned about an upsurge of software patents and patent trolls that exploit these."Dr. Luke McDonagh, citing a New York Times opinion piece, notes: "Another unwelcome stat: in 2016 EPO granted 5 times as many #patents to German companies as to British & twice as many to French companies..."

Bristows, the London-based liars (or lawyers) who are perpetually promoting patent trolls in Europe (and of course UPC too, as these go hand in hand), maintain their advocacy of UPC. Germany cannot ratify the UPC unless the UK does (as there would be no point; we covered this before) and Francisco Moreno added: "Countersignature by German gov. (Merkel or a German Minister) is the next step. One step beyond?"

"Germany cannot ratify the UPC unless the UK does..."Well, his source is Bristows, which can't help lying (false predictions all the time). It's this 'gem' from Gemma Barrett, who after the mirage of Germany going ahead proceeds to the next lobbying effort (remember that Bristows staff are deleting messages of those who refute them). There was also Alan Johnson with this puff piece quoting UPC allies like Bieńkowska [1, 2, 3].

Notice how they dodge discussion about the role of the UK, or lack thereof. So did the ToryGraph some days ago when it published this lobbying piece (in the form of an 'article' or 'report').

"It's a front group for just a few giants, just like the US Chamber of Commerce, and it lies or misleads by omission."The headline is very misleading because British businesses oppose the UPC, yet the article pretends that the British Chambers of Commerce can somehow represent "EU businesses" or even UK-based businesses. It's a front group for just a few giants, just like the US Chamber of Commerce, and it lies or misleads by omission. "Not sure if you saw that one," one reader told us about this, but "the only time the ECJ is mentioned is in the comments."

Here are some excerpts:

Britain should join the EU’s patents union and stay in after Brexit, businesses on both sides of the Channel have demanded, arguing that the Unitary Patent system is helpful regardless of Britain’s status in or out of the EU.

[...]

The British Chambers of Commerce and its EU counterpart Eurochambres have written to the UK’s business secretary Greg Clark to encourage him to push ahead with the plan.


IAM, a UPC booster, correctly noted in relation to this article that "The UK government's growing anti-EU rhetoric could make joining the UPC politically impossible after the election."

"Be careful of misleading, agenda-driven 'blogs' or 'reports' from front groups of corporations and self-serving firms like Bristows."Moreover, it's beginning to look like Tories (with Jo Johnson) might lose the election next week. The people involved may already be on their way out.

Be careful of misleading, agenda-driven 'blogs' or 'reports' from front groups of corporations and self-serving firms like Bristows. We're quite amazed at what they manage to get away with. They try to shape some sort of alternative 'reality' where UPC is both inevitable and desirable by all.

Recent Techrights' Posts

"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
 
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
"Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers."
continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 16 Out of 200: Detailing the Actors and Explaining Techrights' Own Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Network
For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs"
They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits Failures and Criticism of Inaction on SLAPPs
many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs
Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop"
If the "big media" absorbs slop, it'll no longer be trusted and therefore not read/watched by the public
Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants"
Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.
gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical
As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News'
Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 15 Out of 200: Background and Particulars of Truth Regarding Techrights and Tux Machines
the basic facts (this has aged well, except the times/ages/numbers)
A Slopfarms Survey for Today (linuxteck.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com)
Not only did Google news link to a slopfarm; it linked to three run by the same team!
Links 18/03/2026: "Venture Capitalist Warns That It’s All About to Come Crashing Down" Due to Slop Bubble, "Birdwatching for Fun and no Profit"
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat is Still Promoting Restricted Boot Which Restricts Users' Control Over Their Computers
Red Hat under IBM is a total catastrophe
Arvind Says... Something Something "Hey Hi" (the State of Today's Media)
Look for news about IBM and most likely it'll boil down to some sound bites from an executive and nothing else
New Post Has Just Explained How IBM Gets Robbed by the People Who Fail IBM
Their plan for IBM is a personal plan
Slop-Spewing GAFAM LLM That Knows Nothing and Understands Nothing, It's a Stochastic Parrot That Cannot Even Figure Out Tux Machines is a Community That Started in Tennessee 22 Years Ago
RMS rightly calls those things "bullshit generators"
Cusdeb Makes New Presentation About Where GNU Hurd (Still a Possible Linux Replacement) Stands in 2026
coming from a generally RMS-friendly account
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Librarians, Phone Anxiety, Growing 'Small' Net, and Slop Versus Software Engineering
Links for the day
Estimates That IBM to Lay Off Close to 10,000 Workers in 2026 (Not Counting People Pushed Out)
There's still chatter about Confluent mass layoffs
Smug Threat by Garrett to Put My Family and I in Prison Doesn't Prove We Did Anything Wrong, It Only Proves He's Truly Desperate to Stop Further Publications That Embarrass Him
his reputation is poor in the United States
systemd Increasingly Microsoft Project, Controlled by Microsoft and Slopware
Cannot allow choice
What IBM Meant to Red Hat: "Proprietary Bundling, Restricted Source Access"
Anyone or anything that joins IBM likely shortens its lifespan
IBM Thrashing Confluent Upon Arrival, Based on Rumours
We deem it a bigger issue that investigative journalism perished, not that one must rely on hearsay online or mere "rumours"
Slop Is Plagiarism, Not (Vibe) Coding, and It's Not Automated, It Doesn't Save Money
Reject misnomers, explain what's actually happening
UPC is Still Illegal and Unconstitutional (Kangaroo Court for Patents, Manned by Corporate Staff), Federal Court of Justice of Germany Receives Belated Complaint About It
What is happening to Europe???
EPO Demonstration Happening Right Now, Later This Week Things Will Only Escalate Further
The SUEPO The Hague Committee wrote to staff this morning
Sophie Brun, Raphael Hertzog & Debian sexual conflicts of interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2026: Commodore's Hedley Davis Dies, Apple Not Good Enough, Cheeto "Floats Treason Charges for Iran War Coverage"
Links for the day
A Step Close to Shutting Down the European Patent Office (EPO)
Not going to work all month long
EPO Staff Demonstration Today
The demonstration will be live-streamed for those thousands of colleagues who don't live in Munich
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Brazilian SYN Attacks and BGP
Links for the day
LibreLocal Also Coming to Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain
It helps raise awareness of Software Freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 17, 2026