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Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

ffii.org

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Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#61
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First Google result: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/10/14/the-european-u... >The people pushing for more integration are politicians and bureaucrats, not normal people. That's simply not true. There are multiple civil society organizations pushing for a closer union. People are voting for parties that are explicitly pro-European.

I don't know who's right but France has some 65M people whereas e.g. Lithuania has 3M people. And France provides 15% of the EU budget whereas (say) Lithuania provides 0.3%. I'm not sure listing all countries on a bar chart as if their opinions have equal impact on the fate of the EU is an accurate way to illustrate the situation? Would the EU do just fine after losing the UK and a country like France? Would Germans…

> Would Germans still love the EU so much after they realize they're paying twice as much into the EU as the next country?

Germans took up way more monetary responsibility during Corona. E.g. they took various patients from Netherlands and paid for the care themself. Same with the financial crisis that was a result of Corona, Germany was happy to help out other countries.

Now if you look at what Netherlands gains out of the EU (so what the EU is worth to NL) it is about 7 to 8 times the net payment. Limiting the net amount paid is good, but the focus on net payment without looking at what you get is quite short sighted.

See e.g. UK where just paying the custom agents will cost an equivalent as the EU payments.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#62
post #14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I haven’t heard about this Unitary Patent Court. That's probably intentional.

What do you mean by that? Do you seriously think that somebody (who exactly?) is suppressing news about this court? Isn't it _a lot_ more probable that this is simply a highly technical issue that doesn't get a lot of attention? As somebody who is somewhat invested into EU law but not into patent law I have already heard about it by the way. I'm always very skeptical about this sort of vague accusation, implying that…

I don't think there is a conspiracy to suppress the information, but on the other hand I'd say EU has a long way to go in terms of PR and informing citizens. Somehow all these things always surface at 11:55

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#63

The law itself makes sense in my opinion, but the way it was introduced makes the self declaration as being democratic a cheap farce. I doubt the EU will survive in its current state. 10 years ago that would have made me sad. There are enthusiasts, but not enough to make it work.

> I doubt the EU will survive in its current state.

A lot of people desire this to be true, but that does not mean that it is. It is a particularly weird opinion to hold in the wake of the most recent challenge to its continuity -- the Brexit fiasco, with the EU having maintained a united front for more than 4 years, while the UK emerges out of it in a terrible state -- and the worst is yet to come.

The EU is not perfect by any means (what is?), but it is a terribly ambitious project that has been painstakingly built over decades. Every step of the way, someone like you was claiming that it was impossible, that it was surely about to collapse. Well, we are 27 member states strong and we are dealing with the economic challenged posed by COVID better than most of the rest of the world.

If we look at objective measures, such as economic inequality, political polarization or civil unrest, we are perhaps forced to conclude that the US are closer to collapse than the EU. To be clear, I do not desire the collapse of the US. I think that that US and the EU are natural friends, in a world where they have much more in common than what separates them.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#64
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The enthusiasts need to temper their dreams and expectations - EU is doing fine, and doesn't need to always become more powerful or more integrated. Especially not now, when citizens don't want it.

That is a very good point. Problem is that the enthusiasts are the young people across Europe and not exactly a minority. That is a 50:50 or 60:40 thing. So when you satisfy on group (good enough) you will make the the other half unhappy.

The old people will die off rather sooner than later, the problem will solve itself biologically.

The real question is: will this happen fast enough to avoid hitting a no-way-back point in climate change?

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#65
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries break international law all the time [1]. Doesn't make it right of course, but funny how in the UK's case it suddently makes headlines (no surprise really from the usual remainer-suspects). [1] https://www.insideover.com/politics/un-accuses-eu-of-violati...

This is what several lawyers told me, people are making a fuss about the UK breaking the Withdrawal Agreement, but other countries do the same in other fields.

Let's take a step back and look at the situation. You are saying with a straight face several lawyers told you that the UK government deliberately breaking an important international agreement that was negotiated and signed by the same people just months ago is comparable to other countries inadvertently breaking some patent agreement signed decades ago. A matter that several high-ranking British officials had a problem with to the point of resigning in the past few days. Only on the interwebs do people fall for this tosh.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#66
post #28
post #7

As a german i am quite sure they will ratify software patents. The very sad part is the people deciding this have absolutely no understanding what they are doing and that they open the box of pandora. There is currently almost no invest money in european startups, and if everyone of these startups is liable for bogus software patents they will have absolutely no chance on getting big.

I don't like software patents but I have a hard time buying that it will limit investment further. It hasn't significantly done so in the US where software patents have long existed. I imagine it may spur investment because investors see software patents as protecting their investments in startups from both other startups and established companies. Edited to correct a typo kindly pointed out by a comment below.

Or has it? How would we know? In particular, if we think conceptually software patents could be a good thing, why do we think the current length of patent protection is appropriate?

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#67
post #7

As a german i am quite sure they will ratify software patents. The very sad part is the people deciding this have absolutely no understanding what they are doing and that they open the box of pandora. There is currently almost no invest money in european startups, and if everyone of these startups is liable for bogus software patents they will have absolutely no chance on getting big.

How do you know they have no understanding? Perhaps they got shares in large software companies and just want to eliminate competition. It just seems like corruption to me.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#68
post #7

As a german i am quite sure they will ratify software patents. The very sad part is the people deciding this have absolutely no understanding what they are doing and that they open the box of pandora. There is currently almost no invest money in european startups, and if everyone of these startups is liable for bogus software patents they will have absolutely no chance on getting big.

With von der Leyen being president, I am pretty sure we make the wrong decision. Yes, some Europeans might think she looks sympathetic, especially those that don't know her well because of language barriers. That she is on the position is testament to the democratic dysfunction of the Union. Officially she is in a conservative party, which eastern European countries liked very much. If we want to take democracy serio…

"That she is on the position is testament to the democratic dysfunction of the Union."

???

That she has her position is the most glaring evidence of 'democratic dysfunction'.

Nobody voted for her, she was unknown before the election. The very few people that voted in the EU elected voted for something else, after the election 'the true powers' decided to push the ostensible candidate aside, and behind closed doors without input from elected MEPs, Von der Leyen was chosen from relative obscurity (at least outside of Germany) - foisted on top to 500 Million electors, almost none of whom have ever even heard of her.

She was not vetted, she did no debates, there was no public coverage, there were no speeches, there was no published platform, there was no campaign agenda.

Just: "Here is your new leader, that you have never heard of , that you have just elected".

This is not democracy.

So perhaps if there were more transparency, or even some of it, you would have been able to vet her, and actually vote for or against her.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She did a lot of dumb shit while we still had her in Germany.

Not a fan of her, but can you name 10 things ("lot of") that are "dumb shit" that she did?

"zensursula" is quite well-known. "Accidently" erasing her phone and destroying files during an investigation. Several scandals and affairs in relation to the Bundeswehr.

Not ten, but these immediately come to mind.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#70
post #10

But only in a "limited and specific" way, so that's okay [UK in-joke] At least we're not the only country wanting to violate international agreements at present

Countries break international law all the time [1]. Doesn't make it right of course, but funny how in the UK's case it suddently makes headlines (no surprise really from the usual remainer-suspects). [1] https://www.insideover.com/politics/un-accuses-eu-of-violati...

The UK was one of the most compliant EU members.

Personally I'd've preferred staying in the EU and exercising a little more 'flexibility' in interpreting bloc rules to suit our tastes, as some other EU states are wont to do.

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