Quite importantly, Germany cannot ratify either

Reference: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Summary: Team Battistelli and Team UPC pretend that UPC has gotten some sort of 'green light', but actually this could not be further from the truth

A QUICK midnight rebuttal is needed because the EPO amplified Benoît Battistell, who had embedded itself in an EPO 'article' titled "United Kingdom ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement" (warning: epo.org link) with the following summary: "The United Kingdom has announced today that it has deposited the instruments of ratification of the Agreement relating to the Unified Patent Court (UPCA). This now brings the total number of ratifications to sixteen."

Read this carefully. Very carefully.

"Read this carefully. Very carefully."Well, "deposited the instruments of ratification" is not what many in Team UPC would later claim. And watch what the EPO wrote in Twitter (back when the EPO's site was offline for a while): "United Kingdom ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement - "a decisive step closer to achieving the entry into force of the Unitary Patent" said EPO President Benoît Battistell" (so the subject line or title does not even match the contents/body).

Well, we have become accustomed to such nonsense from Team Battistelli and Team UPC. Then came Bristows.

Alan Johnson wrote : "The IP Minister Sam Gyimah MP has announced that the UK has today ratified the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement."

"Well, we have become accustomed to such nonsense from Team Battistelli and Team UPC."No, not really. The title says "UK ratifies the UPC Agreement," but again, this isn't what actually (fully) happened. Alan Johnson, of Bristows, also wrote about it in another blog with another misleading headline, "UK celebrates World IP Day by announcing UPCA ratification".

From there onwards many people were misled. "UK celebrates World IP Day by announcing UPCA ratification"? What does that have to do with "World IP Day", which we'll mention in our next post? The same blog then wrote another misleading post with a bogus headline: "BREAKING: UK ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement" (no, not really, not quite).

Months ago we caught Bristows repeatedly publishing patently false headlines. It's their modus operandi.

This is consistent with a pattern of lies from Bristows and the EPO. Thorsten Bausch then joined in by saying: "…clearly less spectacular than the UK’s ratification of the UPCA, but nevertheless noteworthy and – perhaps! – even more relevant in the long run (but that we shall see). My colleague Mike Gruber was kind enough to compile the following brief summary of the Federal Patent Court’s full decision on the Raltegravir (Isentress€®) compulsory license matter."

"All in all, what we have here is another reminder that when it comes to the UPC one must trace back the source (if it's not fabricated; Bristows seems to make stuff up sometimes)."That's a loaded paragraph which repeats, quite falsely, claims from Bristows. This comes after more SPC promotion from the same blog (we wrote about that earlier today).

So what is going on? Team UPC/UPC boosters of IP Kat then did the same thing (false headline). Read the first comment:

Strange that this is reported as a "momentous day for patent litigators in the UK". I was under the impression that the UPC was intended to benefit SMEs? Surely, this should be a momentous day for SMEs?

I am aware that certain UK patent litigation firms and individuals, particularly those that have worked hard to set up the UPC, are set to profit massively if and when the UPC starts but surely this shouldn't now be the raison d'etre of the UPC?

Then came Wouter Pors, who kept pushing for the UPC even using misleading claims and personal attacks.

It's not too shocking that the above comment bothered Team UPC, so then Team UPC showed up to say:

There will be people who disagree, but I am very happy that the UK has ratified and thus rewarded all the hard work that Kevin, Alexander, Paul, Margot and all the others have put into making patent litgation at a truly European level a reality in the very near future.

Congratulations!

Wouter POrs Bird & Bird The Hague

Lobbying with Battistelli's hench(wo)man "Margot"? Who kept lying about the UPC for a number of years? See the next comment:

I don't think the instrument of ratification has yet been deposited with the EU Council (which is the last official step needed)

Yes, it's not final and there are many issues associated with Brexit itself, not just with the German complaint. All in all, what we have here is another reminder that when it comes to the UPC one must trace back the source (if it's not fabricated; Bristows seems to make stuff up sometimes). ⬆