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Solloway noted that: "Today, by means of a Note Verbale, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has withdrawn its ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court."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."
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday July 25 2020, @05:20PM (8 children)
Better if we break it up further then. The last thing we need is to give patents and copyright more power
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @06:02PM (6 children)
Were you always this fucking stupid, nigger? We should abolish patents and copyright altogether. End government-backed monopolies that interfere with the free market.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @06:07PM (5 children)
Yeah... China will make the same invention for 1/100th the price. Free trade!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:31PM (2 children)
I've heard "privilege of rank" bandied around...
This I'd China's "privilege of sovereignty".
We make laws to cripple ourselves.
China builds things.
Can I blame them?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Funny) by anubi on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:35PM (1 child)
Forgive my bad syntax, please.
I'm trying to post with a phone's autocorrector in the loop.
It's a constant reminder that we are not ready for self driving cats.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @02:35AM
Cats don't drive. They have chauffeurs.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday July 26 2020, @01:40PM (1 child)
This is something worth a much closer look. Everyone gets hung up on poor pay and long hours in china, but that's not even half of the difference. There's a whole herd of elephants in the room. Double their pay and things direct from china are still less than half the cost of products from american companies. The new $1000 iPhones could be sold for about $400+shipping and turn a profit.
I'm using a Chinese 3D printer currently. It cost me $220. It's fully open source, including the technical drawings, but I couldn't even source the materials here for less than I paid for the whole printer. the design and construction is wide open. If I need to repair it, I can get the parts from pretty much anywhere. Easiest answer, search on amazon and pick which of 5 or ten vendors I want to buy it from. For example, the other day the plastic lever on the extruder (spring loaded, keeps the filament pinched against a drive gear). I went with an all aluminum replacement extruder assembly for $12. Took all of 15 minutes and zero swears to swap it in.
Comparable U.S. made printer costs $1000 and has a useless plastic housing that would be at least 3 swears just to get it off so I can repair the thing.
To really compete with China, we need to lose a lot of overhead more than we need to cut pay. Real estate costs, legal overhead, business overhead, etc. Those solid mahogany conference tables in huge conference rooms in the middle of the most expensive real estate in the U.S. don't come cheap. Executives may need to go back to only making 300% more than the average pay, like they did in the '50s.
Cut some of that out and they won't need a 500 percent markup to be filthy rich.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @02:51PM
This. The effect real estate becoming an investment vehicle for a rent seeking class has on entrepreneurship and wealth is disastrous. Framing the rise of kleptocratic financialization as a disaster of capitalism is an absurdity predominately understood by the productive (ie: wealth creating) members of society. Rent controls are an aberration but there's a strong argument to be made (on both sides of the political debate) for progressive taxation on reckless corporate profiteering from property. [nypost.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by canopic jug on Saturday July 25 2020, @06:06PM
The last thing we need is to give patents and copyright more power
The death of the UPC [techrights.org] through the loss of the UK from Europe was confirmed this way at the beginning of the year. That was one small benefit of Brexit, perhaps the only one. It may be a few years before the crooks pushing for it can regroup and try some other way to sneak software patents into Europe. The UPC was mainly intended as a way of doing an end run around European laws in order to impose software patents. The 1973 European Patent Convention specifically excludes software from patent law, leaving copyright for that.
Now that Groklaw is in archive mode and the other sites have either shut down or changed topics, Roy at Techrights has really been the last one to cover the UPC [techrights.org] or, for that matter, the profoundly corrupt EPO [techrights.org] which has been pushing for the UPC.
The UPC is dead, but the crowd pushing for it has not been jailed yet. So keep your eyes open for further developments and possible need to defend software use (and development) in the EU.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.