Bonum Certa Men Certa

You Know That the Unitary Patent (UPC) is in Huge Peril When Its Biggest Fans Admit It's Unlikely to Happen Even Next Year

The long-sought reality distortion field is severely rattled

Unitary Patent expert teams Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna’s paper on the entryism that helped advance UPC close to ratification



Summary: The tactics of Team UPC turn ugly as they personally target anyone who stands in their way, even a professor/judge who is courageous enough to state the obvious

THE tactics used by Team UPC and the EPO have become uglier. When they don't simply ignore news which they deem inconvenient they attack those whom they don't agree with and disseminate lies instead.



Team UPC is actually too polite a term; they deserve a label like the "UPC cult" because this is how they behave; they also eliminate/crush/delete opposing views. This week we are seeing gently-worded personal attacks or attempts to discredit Professor Siegfried Broß for saying the truth about the UPC. It's stuff like this which reminds us why the UPC complaint was done anonymously. We can envision the sorts of nasty personal attacks which would ensue if the petitioner's/s' name/s became widely known and circulated in the German media.

Thankfully, some parts of Team UPC are giving up on the 'party line'; We at Techrights genuinely think (based on informed analysis) that UPC would very bad for development of software in Europe. British businesses agree, but their collective voice often gets hijacked by a bunch of lawyers who pretend to represent them or their interests. The UPCA was designed by lawyers, it intends to actually harm the industry, and basically enrich these lawyers and their richest clients, which are often not European at all.

IAM 'magazine', which earlier this year spread fake news about Spain (repeatedly in fact, in spite of being constantly debunked), had organised pro-UPC events supported by the EPO and funded by the EPO's PR firm. A change of tune is afoot, however, as this tweet and article from today say that "UPC will not get started in 2017 and don't bet too much on it happening in 2018 either" (or ever!)

To quote:

It’s been a big political week in the UK. On Monday, David Davis, the government minister overseeing the Brexit process, finally had his first formal meeting with Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator for the EU27, so beginning the discussions around the country’s departure from the European Union. Then, yesterday, Parliament was opened by the Queen following the inconclusive 8th June election which saw the ruling Conservative government unexpectedly lose its overall majority and, therefore, the ability to control the narrative around Brexit and other legislative issues. With the clock ticking down to 29th March 2019 – the date when the UK is scheduled to stop being an EU member state – the country has an emasculated leader and no detailed Brexit strategy. It’s a mess.

Although the dysfunctionality at the heart of the UK political system and the trauma of the divorce from the EU is largely an issue for us Brits, it does have implications for any IP owners that hold assets here or might wish to do so in the future. There are now under two years until Brexit occurs and all the uncertainties around IP that existed on the day after Leave won the referendum continue to exist today – with no sign yet of them being solved. This has major implications for enforcement and for validity of rights granted by the EU IP Office, as well as those that will be granted over the course of the next 20 months.


Dr. Birgit Clark‏, a former 'Kat' whom we found reliable (thus far), has meanwhile taken note of a misleading Battistelli puff piece where his lies to the audience got amplified.

Quite rightly, she tagged it #believeitwhenIseeit and in response to this, Dr. Luke McDonagh wrote: "Major errors in this piece: in fact German ratification awaits a constitutional challenge + Italy&Netherlands both want UK's #UPC division"

Obviously it was some kind of fake news and Battistelli had lied to a large audience of scientists.

Look what level the EPO has sunk to...

One comment at IP Kat, left earlier today, took note of the "Interview of Pr Bross in Juve.de on UPC hence Karlsruhe" -- an interview to which Wouter Pors from Team UPC (he remains one of the chief propagandists for Unitary Patent) responded in another comment by shooting the messenger. Here is his comment:

To my understanding, the complaint relating to the ratification of the UPC Agreement is not based on arguments relating to the EPO Boards of Appeal. This means that the remarks of Prof. Bross with regard to the EPO issues are not relevant for this appeal. Further, I completely fail to see how issues with the EPO Boards of Appeal could affect the UPC, which does meet all the standards for an impartial and independent court.

On the other hand, if issues with regard to the EPO, which are brought forward in other complaints to the German Constitutional Court, would be relevant, that would relate to all European patents that cover Germany, not only to Unitary Patents. But still they would not relate to the UPC.

As the IPKat mentions and I have also understood, prof. Bross is involved in such actions on behalf of an applicant.

Wouter Pors Bird & Bird The Hague



Pors was not alone in attacking the messenger. There was "damage control" from the other "deplorables" of UPCA, notably Christopher Weber and his employer. Earlier on he wrote about "Our report and commentary on @juveVerlag_MK's interview with former constitutional judge Broß on the complaint against the #UPC..."

They actually issued a whole post in their official Web site in response to an article. How pathetic is that? Team UPC is currently very afraid of Broß and Mr. Weber wages a battle for his employer (with stakes in the UPC). He also wrote this tweet linking to his employer. They probably try to appease impatient clients to whom the firm gave bad advice regarding the UPC.

Also in Germany we now see this law firm pretending that it's all just "Postponed", even though there is no certainty about the UPC at all. Anywhere! The concluding part states:

According to reports published on 11 June 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court has requested the Federal President of Germany to refrain from signing the law that is necessary to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC). The president has agreed to comply with this request. The president's signing is the last step required for a law to come into force after it has already passed both legislative chambers in Germany.


At 1:30AM? With just 5% of the politicians present? The whole process has been full of mischief and foul play, nefarious tricks, and one might say political corruption. Now they pay the price for what they wrongly assumed nobody would notice.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually