● 05.24.16
●● The Media Starts Informing the European Public About the Downsides of UPC While EPO Accelerates Its Lobbying for Ratification
Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Hoping it will be too late and too hard to rescind this antidemocratic scheme?
Summary: The EPO’s shameless UPC promotion takes another step forward as the European press outlets (even television channels) begin to explore the secret deal that’s negotiated by patent lawyers (with corporate clients) and patent offices, not the public or any public interest groups
More UPC lobbying was caught by us just earlier today. This kind of lobbying (totally antidemocratic and by an unaccountable entity above the law) was coming from the EPO's PR department. The UPC and EPO should be seen as increasingly inseparable. The management of the EPO is trying to change the system in favour of large corporations (not even European ones), clearly at the expense of ordinary European citizens and even patent examiners, board members, etc. The public will sooner or later find out about it, just as it found out about ISDS and what it really meant to ordinary citizens, as opposed to large corporations (global corporations can sue local governments overseas, i.e. claim damages from citizens overseas for alleged losses due to policy/representatives).
“The management of the EPO is trying to change the system in favour of large corporations (not even European ones), clearly at the expense of ordinary European citizens and even patent examiners, board members, etc.”We are seeing more about the UPC in the press. Coverage in Italy, for example, was mentioned here earlier this month. One reader told us that “the program on Italian television [on] patents and EPO has caught some attention and even some alarmed reaction. So far it is still all under the radar but the authors of the show are known to follow up their investigations consistently. The program (15 May) had just a significant part on EPO and its obscure behavior, even an examiner got interviewed anonymously, but it has been mainly reporting on the perverse development that patents in general have become, including a critical view on UPC. So in general EPO remained an important part of the program, but not its main focus.”
There may be more coming, not just from Italian national television. How deep will the journalists dig and what will they tell the public about the UPC? The EPO is lobbying Italy pretty hard to ratify the UPC (Italy is a longtime thorn on the UPC’s side) and there are some dubious reports on the matter.
“Does the public need to know more before taking the battle to the streets of Europe?”Bristows LLP staff, in the mean time, continues with the UPC cheerleading. There’s no sense of shame when one does it for one’s financial interests (it’s like promoting/ushering in TPP and TTIP, except not many European citizens know anything about the UPC). Funnily enough, down in the comments, what seems like a patent lawyer explains why UPC is problematic and may make no sense at all.
Is it time to call the whole thing off? Does the public need to know more before taking the battle to the streets of Europe? There is more coming from the media and perhaps also from activism groups, so stay tuned. █
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