I have spent these past decades cataloging the United States’ many decades of ever-increasing idiocy.
Including its undermining the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) – most especially its War on Patents.
IP is essential to any economy – most especially a digital one.
Because before you can buy something, before you can make something – you have to invent that something. Patents are the predicate for all economic activity.
I have also spent these past decades cataloging Communist China’s many decades of using our idiocy against US.
Including offering itself as a safe haven for IP creators. A welcoming shore for inventors driven out of the US by our idiotic policy.
Because after decades of taking our manufacturing gigs – why wouldn’t China also take our inventing gigs?
Well, it ain’t just US being idiots. Behold the European Union (EU).
I have said for many decades that California, Canada and western Europe were always about ten years more stupid and Leftist than is the US. If you wanted to know our future – you looked at their present.
Unfortunately, it’s now become a dead heat dumbness race to self-immolation.
The EU’s latest assault on economic activity – is its new proposed assault on the Standard Essential Patent (SEP). What are SEPs?:
“An essential patent or standard-essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard. Standards organizations, therefore, often require members disclose and grant licenses to their patents and pending patent applications that cover a standard that the organization is developing.”
Standards organizations are global entities that set global standards for global things. As anti-globalism as I am – some things do require global things.
The wireless World Wide Web is one such thing. Because every single wireless device everywhere on the planet – uses the same finite wireless spectrum on which to travel. And managing the traffic of 7+ billion people – can get a little tricky:
“Nearly every sector of the economy now relies upon wireless technologies in fundamental ways – from banking and agriculture to transportation and healthcare. And powerful new technologies that rely on robust wireless communications networks – such as 5G, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things – hold great promise to improve lives at an unprecedented pace and scale.…
“None of this, however, could be possible without international regulations and worldwide agreed standards that help to ensure interference-free wireless communications across borders.”
Standard Essential Patents are, therefore, ESSENTIAL.
If you invent something that helps comply with keeping everything on the Web running smoothly – that something MUST be protected.
Except the EU is currently looking to strip mine those protections:
“The European Commission presented…a legislative package (that includes) measures to facilitate access to patents needed to comply with technical standards.”
Allow me to translate their “measures” to English:
“Facilitate access to patents needed to comply with technical standards” – actually means “Make it much easier to steal the patents needed to comply with technical standards.”
This is “reform” – in the way all government entities almost always mean “reform”:
“The EU Commission is serious about regulating standard essential patents in Europe. The reform proposal was released yesterday….”
Allow me to translate their “reform” to English:
“Make things demonstrably worse for almost everybody – to serve the crony interests of a tiny faction of Big Businesses.”
This “reform” will do to SEPs – what the US’s 2011 “reform” did to US patents. Allow Big Businesses to steal SEPs:
“So far, there have been accusations that the proposal is ‘unbalanced’ and too implementer-friendly.”
An “implementer” – is someone who uses someone else’s SEPs. The EU’s “reform” – will greatly minimize the pesky requirement that Big Business actually pay for the SEPs they implement.
Because why should the crony implementer likes of Apple (Market Cap: $2.7 trillion) and Google (Market Cap: $1.5 trillion) have to pay for SEPs?
Far better that the EU legalize their theft.
Meanwhile, Communist China is yet again licking its chops:
“In recent weeks, many critics have claimed this spells the end for Europe as a hub of technology. They accuse the EU Commission of sloppy work and fear that SEP holders will move to other jurisdictions for their litigation in the future.”
Because unlike Western Civilization – Communist China isn’t committing suicide.