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Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

ffii.org

151–160 of 283 posts

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

#151
post #143

I am not an expert on international law but I am 99% sure that the legal arguments in the text are partially wrong. Yes, some aspects of the UPC are not great but it should rather be opposed on public policy grounds, i.e. negative effects software patents and increased cost of litigation (and maybe that should've been done during the negotiations on the treaty). It's a bit difficult to discern their argument as the t…

"opposed on public policy grounds, i.e. negative effects software patents and increased cost of litigation (and maybe that should've been done during the negotiations on the treaty)." Problem is that the Court Fees were decided after the treaty has been signed, by this administrative committee. And they are defeating the purpose of "making the whole system cheaper", as it would raise the cost of litigation for a simp…

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this supposed price increase in Stjema's analysis only based on the maximum reimbursement allowance for lawyers? Hence, this only pertains to the potential for increased costs, not actual increased costs. Also, the obvious advantage of a European court is that one does not need to enforce one's patent in all State jurisdictions separately, right? Stjema shows how this duplication is actually lower than assumed (bc most companies choose to only enforce it in one country) but wouldn't the assumption be that the need for enforcement in more than one jurisdiction increase as the internal market for knowledge products becomes ever-more integrated? Although I see how it could be more expensive right now (and software patents still suck)

I would mainly love to see a response regarding the legal side.

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

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conservative doesn't really mean much anymore on its own. CDU might be considered conservative by Western European standards, but it's liberal by Eastern European standards.

They want more or less government spending ? They accept that the structure of the family will change ? Example, families with more than two parents (that is a real possibility due to overpopulation). They want less or more police ? Reform the prison system (even dissolve it), maybe ? What are their views on immigration ? Multiculturalism ? Should we tax the wealthy more or less ? Of course, there are different polit…

> "They accept that the structure of the family will change ? Example, families with more than two parents (that is a real possibility due to overpopulation)"

What does this mean? How is alleged population related to family structure and sexual relations?

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

#154
post #125

As someone that has invented novel algorithms I still feel Patents are a net negative especially for software. I just wish EU would be a better place for „startup“ innovation. My experience with the university infrastructure in that area isn’t great:

Strong patent laws stop innovation at the research stage. Derivative works, such as turning research into a startup or a public company, becomes rent seeking. Where in the world can you escape this rent seeking?

China

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

#155
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Patents in other industries negatively affected innovation for decades. 3d printers are a prime example where recently expired patents resulted in real progress. Those patents will affect open source which no other industry has adopted to the extent software has. Even hardware is being open sourced now as a cultural influence. Can you point me to any other industry where small teams or individuals can build and learn…

It is interesting that consumer 3D printers boomed after the major foundational patents died, but it might be an accident of history as well, because low cost manufacturing and low cost computation helped make 3D printers affordable for consumers.

3D printers were used by industry for many years prior to the expiration, esp. in aerospace and the military.

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

#156

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 per…

> 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.

If would be a weird opinion to hold if the EU managed to keep britain. But the fact that the EU lost a major nation doesn't make it a weird opinion. It makes it a sensible one to hold. Did you think the soviet union losing warsaw pact members was also a sign of stability?

> 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.

No. If we lost texas or california or ny, then you might have a point. Also, none of what you listed actually lead to collapse. The US has been going strong for nearly 250 years. We survived the civil war without losing any territory or collapsing. Do you think the EU could survive the same? We have the same language, history, culture, currency, etc at this point. There is no legitimate secessionist movement here. There are a few in europe. Also, the EU has fault lines that separate people by language, history, culture, currency, etc.

If economic inequality, political polarization or civil unrest lead to a collapse, then we would have collapsed a long time ago. The US survived the gilded age, civil war, the 60s, etc. The EU faced a stiff breeze and lost britain. Imagine what real issues would do to the EU?

The problem with the EU is the lack of a strong central government and a sense of identity because european or eusian ( heck EU members don't really have a name do they? ) is really a meaningless designation like asian. It's too big and broad of a term to be sensible political identity. Like the soviet union. Or dare I say even the russian federation or china.

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

#158
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong patent laws stop innovation at the research stage. Derivative works, such as turning research into a startup or a public company, becomes rent seeking. Where in the world can you escape this rent seeking?

China

China's stereotype is having no copyright enforcement, but this seems to be wrong.

>Plaintiffs won in 80.16% of all patent infringement cases included in the population. Such a win rate was higher than its counterparts in many major countries – Germany (approximately 66%) and the United States (approximately 60%), for example.

https://patentlyo.com/patent/2018/02/things-infringement-lit...

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

#159
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 wi…

The thing about the EU is, it's not a democratic government. It's atreaty organization that sometimes takes on responsibilities like a government. This dual identity has been a boon in some political situations in the past, but it is also a serious liability. Von der Leyen got the job in a usual way for a treaty organization, but she is much more political than some technocrat. There are factions that like it each wa…

"It is increasingly clear that we need a supranational organization in Europe which IS a democratic government."

I don't think that's clear at all.

One could very much make the argument that it doesn't need 'governance' it needs 'coordination' which are very different things.

I feel the vast majority of the most important things could be achieved mostly by treaty and that everyone could 'have their cake and eat it' which is to say have fully sovereign states and work together.

I think there's quite a lot of a) ideology in the US of Europe b) it's the natural 'power creep' of any institution and c) the business class love to be able to 'skip democracy' and so do the 'socialist' types - both of whom kind of work in a weird kind of tolerance of one another, with I think the business class mostly in charge.

In particular, the hugely vague mandates on 'Human Rights' are the biggest coup, though the least obvious. They basically give a 'carte blanche' to the EU courts to rule as they see fit, interpreting some basic, bland text to mean whatever they want it to mean.

Since the EU courts often decide on their own jurisdiction ... it results in a huge concentration of legal power.

It's a Judicial takeover.

Something similar happened in Canada - not exactly on purpose - but when Trudeau Sr. introduced a new Constitution into Canada in the early 1980's - it was a 'nice modern document' but obviously vague. Since then, the Supreme Court of Canada has struck down innumerable old laws, new laws, they do it all the time, they even 'change their minds' on things like terminal care and suicide. Because of the vague wording, 'the world's top legal scholars and lawyers' have no clue what legislation is legal or not, it's just a matter of what our 'Tribal Council of Unelected Elders' decide to do. It's resulted in 'Law by Judicial Fiat' for a wide array of issues - all of the most important ones (identity, rights, marriage, abortion). Canadians, elected officials, politicians, the Prime Minister have little say in the matter ... except for this weird clause someone can effect which basically says a 'law is not bound by the constitution' - which is crazy in of itself.

The 'Human Rights' mandates of the EU are controversial for this reason: obviously, they are humane and positive i.e. a 'good thing' - but many people oppose them on the legal problems the effectively create. These people are easily lambasted in the press as 'anti human rights' which is of course completely wrong.

Europeans are quite smart, the lack of understanding of these things is really quite bothersome. People just seem to be happy to do whatever the elite tell them to do.

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised. I thought by now it was common knowledge that the corruptible involving her son and other more distant family members has cost the taxpayers 100+ millions.

What did her son have to do with anything? And quite frankly, even though the optics were probably not very good, I don't know of any corruption on the part of Ursula von der Leyen that was conclusively shown.

She hired the company where her son was working using taxpayer money. And then that company paid commission for it to her son. So she indirectly paid taxpayer money to her son.
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