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UK Formally Abandons Europe’s Unified Patent Court

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday July 25 2020, @05:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the UPC-seal-of-approval dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

brexit means brexit

UK formally abandons Europe's Unified Patent Court, Germany plans to move forward nevertheless:

The UK has formally ditched the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a project to create a single pan-European patent system that would fix the confusing mess of contradictory laws currently in place.

In a written statement in the House of Commons on Monday, the British undersecretary for science, research and innovation Amanda Solloway noted that: "Today, by means of a Note Verbale, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has withdrawn its ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court."

The reason is, of course Brexit. "In view of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, the United Kingdom no longer wishes to be a party to the Unified Patent Court system. Participating in a court that applies EU law and is bound by the CJEU would be inconsistent with the Government's aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation," she said.

[...] The whole idea of the UPC has been fought for over a decade now, making many its adherents borderline fanatical in making it a reality, even more so given frequent setbacks. In their unerring support, however, many seem willing to overlook or turn a blind eye to serious problems, not least of which is the mess that is the European Patent Office (EPO).

[...] The EPO is, of course, a big fan of the UPC and insists the UK leaving is a mere trifle to the larger European dream of a single patent system; a system that would give it significantly more power:

"These economic benefits for European companies and especially SMEs will not be affected by the announcement of the United Kingdom," it insisted in its submission to the German government.

"Even without the UK, the UP package will lead to significant simplification and cost reduction for the companies of the participating EU member states, which is also largely recognized by European companies."

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by turgid on Saturday July 25 2020, @07:44PM (7 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 25 2020, @07:44PM (#1026237) Journal

    The EU is the new USSR.

    I have friends and colleagues from all over the world, including former Eastern Block (USSR) countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary. They are highly intelligent people and some are old enough to remember life under Communism and their parents certainly do. The are all pro-EU and are absolutely shocked and astounded that the UK has fallen for this divisive propaganda and has left the EU. The EU is nothing like the USSR.

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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @08:28PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @08:28PM (#1026257)

    Vladimir Bukovsky disagreed [archive.org]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:25PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:25PM (#1026288)

      Why don't you listen to the 1hr audio and find the quote that you tell us support your position? Thanks.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:03PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:03PM (#1026308)

        I did not assert a position but since you're interested, here's some excepts from a Brussels speech Bukovsky made in 2006.

        In 1992 I had unprecedented access to Politburo and Central Committee secret documents which have been classified, and still are even now, for 30 years. These documents show very clearly that the whole idea of turning the European common market into a federal state was agreed between the left-wing parties of Europe and Moscow as a joint project which [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev in 1988-89 called our "common European home."

        The idea was very simple. It first came up in 1985-86, when the Italian Communists visited Gorbachev, followed by the German Social-Democrats. They all complained that the changes in the world, particularly after [British Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher introduced privatisation and economic liberalisation, were threatening to wipe out the achievement (as they called it) of generations of Socialists and Social-Democrats – threatening to reverse it completely. Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals in all countries at once. Prior to that, the left-wing parties and the Soviet Union had opposed European integration very much because they perceived it as a means to block their socialist goals. From 1985 onwards they completely changed their view. The Soviets came to a conclusion and to an agreement with the left-wing parties that if they worked together they could hijack the whole European project and turn it upside down. Instead of an open market they would turn it into a federal state.

        It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like it. Similary, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members. Apart from that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by anyone at all. When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan. We used to have an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.

  • (Score: 3, Troll) by rleigh on Saturday July 25 2020, @08:48PM (3 children)

    by rleigh (4887) on Saturday July 25 2020, @08:48PM (#1026261) Homepage

    "The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe" -- Mikhail Gorbachev.

    • (Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:25PM (2 children)

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:25PM (#1026311) Journal

      The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent attempt to recreate North Korra in the UK.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:34PM (#1026313)

        Sounds right up your Korranation Street.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @05:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @05:16PM (#1026632)

        The Brits and the Yanks tend to follow the same trends. Trump, Brexit, they share all the same redneck bullshit. If not for Quebec, you would see the same in Canada, only there they are trying to recreate Alberta...

        Too bad Australia isn't Irish, eh?