A prominent MEP -- Tiemo @woelken -- is suing the @EUCommission for "failing to adequately explain why it withdrew two pieces of EU legislation shortly after President Ursula von der Leyen met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance," according to Politico.

Wölken says "he has filed a court challenge because the Commission delayed responding to his requests for access to documents" regarding the withdrawal of the EU’s proposed regulations on #patents and #AILiability. #AIL #VdL #AI

GM’s New Technology Could Help You Avoid Crappy Roads https://www.byteseu.com/1208976/ #Patents&Trademarks #Technology

The UK Government has an open consultation on Standard Essential Patents underway.

@openuk will be responding to this and providing some guidance over the next few weeks for individuals and interested parties who wish to follow our approach to the response.

Very important to have the risks of these in open source flagged clearly to government as we see an increased focus on standards for global governance.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/openuktechnology_opensource-patents-seps-activity-7351629896315478017-OUih

In Germany, dairy farmers, plant breeders, the leading organic farming association, the largest conventional farmers association, Germany's protestant churches and the Catholic Rural Movement, have all united in a call for an end to #patents on #seeds! https://www.organicseurope.bio/news/a-coalition-of-conventional-and-organic-farmers-call-for-an-end-to-patents-on-seeds/

"There is some irony in using AI bots, which are often trained on copyrighted material for which AI firms have shown little regard, to assess the validity of new #patents"

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/20/us_patent_office_ai/?td=keepreading

Also, if it's free, I'm guessing applicants will be the product...

"An increasing number of scholars, policymakers and grassroots communities argue that artificial intelligence (AI) research—and computer-vision research in particular—has become the primary source for developing and powering mass surveillance. Yet, the pathways from computer vision to surveillance continue to be contentious. Here we present an empirical account of the nature and extent of the surveillance AI pipeline, showing extensive evidence of the close relationship between the field of computer vision and surveillance. Through an analysis of computer-vision research papers and citing patents, we found that most of these documents enable the targeting of human bodies and body parts. Comparing the 1990s to the 2010s, we observed a fivefold increase in the number of these computer-vision papers linked to downstream surveillance-enabling patents. Additionally, our findings challenge the notion that only a few rogue entities enable surveillance. Rather, we found that the normalization of targeting humans permeates the field. This normalization is especially striking given patterns of obfuscation. We reveal obfuscating language that allows documents to avoid direct mention of targeting humans, for example, by normalizing the referring to of humans as ‘objects’ to be studied without special consideration. Our results indicate the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08972-6

WD Escapes Half a Billion in Patent Damages as Judge Trims Award To $1 - Western Digital has succeeded in having the sum it owed from a patent infringement... - https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/06/24/1925240/wd-escapes-half-a-billion-in-patent-damages-as-judge-trims-award-to-1?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed #patents

"Two dangerous bills have been reintroduced in Congress that would reverse over a decade of progress in fighting patent trolls and making the patent system more balanced. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) and the PREVAIL Act would each cause significant harm on their own. Together, they form a one-two punch—making it easier to obtain vague and overly broad patents, while making it harder for the public to challenge them.

These bills don’t just share bad ideas—they share sponsors, a coordinated rollout, and backing from many of the same lobbying groups. Congress should reject both."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/pera-and-prevail-acts-would-make-bad-patents-easier-get-and-harder-fight

Intel Wins Jury Trial Over Patent Licenses In $3 Billion VLSI Fight - A Texas jury ruled that Intel may hold a license to patents owned by VLSI Technolo... - https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/29/2058225/intel-wins-jury-trial-over-patent-licenses-in-3-billion-vlsi-fight?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed #patents

Intel Wins Jury Trial Over Patent Licenses In $3 Billino VLSI Fight - A Texas jury ruled that Intel may hold a license to patents owned by VLSI Technolo... - https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/29/2058225/intel-wins-jury-trial-over-patent-licenses-in-3-billino-vlsi-fight?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed #patents

Big Pharma sells life saving drugs at 1000% markup in India.

What's known to those of us in Rare Diseases circle, Journalist Jyotsna Singh opens it up to all of you by talking to Ms. Chetali Rao an expert on IP law on how Big Pharma exploits patents to rob/murder patients at scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTDxBfYvZ8

#EuropeanPatent Office to help secure #Europe’s competitive edge [Promoted content]: Amid rising global competition, the #EuropeanPatent Office is stepping up to lead, responding to #Europe’s urgent call for #innovation and unity by advancing #patents, #standards, and strategic collaboration to secure Europe’s competitive edge.   https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/opinion/european-patent-office-to-help-secure-europes-competitive-edge/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=dlvr.it

"A new memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is calling on defense contractors to grant the Army the right-to-repair. The Wednesday memo is a document about “Army Transformation and Acquisition Reform” that is largely vague but highlights the very real problems with IP constraints that have made it harder for the military to repair damaged equipment.

Hegseth made this clear at the bottom of the memo in a subsection about reform and budget optimization. “The Secretary of the Army shall…identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions where intellectual property constraints limit the Army's ability to conduct maintenance and access the appropriate maintenance tools, software, and technical data—while preserving the intellectual capital of American industry,” it says. “Seek to include right to repair provisions in all existing contracts and also ensure these provisions are included in all new contracts.”

Over the past decade, corporations have made it difficult for people to repair their own stuff and, somehow, the military is no exception. Things are often worse for the Pentagon. Many of the contracts it signs for weapons systems come with decades long support and maintenance clauses. When officials dig into the contracts they’ve often found that contractors are overcharging for basic goods or intentionally building weapons with proprietary parts and then charging the Pentagon exorbitant fees for access to replacements."

https://www.404media.co/army-will-seek-right-to-repair-clauses-in-all-its-contracts/

https://www.alojapan.com/1263144/china-powers-forward-in-hydrogen-patents-outcompeting-japan/ China powers forward in hydrogen patents, outcompeting Japan #China #Forward #Hydrogen #Japan #JapanNews #JapanTopics #news #outcompeting #patents #powers TOKYO — China has surpassed Japan to become the most competitive country when it comes to hydrogen-related patents, a new study has found, bolstering its position as a leader in carbon-free energy combined with its edge in solar and wind. Tokyo-based research company Astamuse, in which Nikk…

OIN Marks 20 Years of Defending Linux and Open Source From Patent Trolls - An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Today, open-source software powers... - https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/04/29/1952237/oin-marks-20-years-of-defending-linux-and-open-source-from-patent-trolls?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed #patents

"Chief Executives don’t usually brag about paying high tax rates.
But with pharma tariffs looming, being a tax sucker is suddenly a badge of safety in the industry. That isn’t because Wall Street is suddenly in love with taxes. Rather, with so much uncertainty, investors are prizing biotech companies that base their intellectual property and manufacturing in the U.S., which up until now often meant higher taxes.

On a Thursday earnings call, Gilead Sciences Chief Executive Daniel O’Day proudly pointed out that the biotech’s corporate tax rate of approximately 20% “reflects the fact that the substantial majority of our intellectual property is already registered in the United States.”

Before the Trump era, many pharma and biotech firms established intellectual property and manufacturing operations in low-tax hubs such as Ireland. This allowed them to reduce their tax bills through transfer pricing. Essentially, the Irish unit of the company sells the drug to a U.S. unit at a high internal “transfer price,” enabling the parent company to book most of the profit in the lower-tax jurisdiction. (Ireland currently offers a headline 15% corporate tax rate to big companies, compared with 21% in the U.S.) On paper, the U.S. unit appears to earn little—even though the end-sales are largely happening in America.

While the 2017 tax overhaul under Trump was meant to curb offshore profit shifting, in practice it left key loopholes intact.

Now the second Trump administration appears to be preparing to use tariffs to target the practice, with the goal of inducing companies to increase manufacturing in the U.S. Earlier this month, the Trump administration—which has repeatedly lambasted Ireland for luring American pharma companies—announced probes into pharmaceutical imports, citing national-security concerns."

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/wall-streets-new-tariff-safe-haven-high-tax-biotech-stocks-b98f2ac1

Donald #Trump proclaimed yesterday World Intellectual Property Day.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/world-intellectual-property-day-2025/

* Note that it's World Intellectual Property Day, not US Intellectual Property Day.
* He proudly compares his #IP strategy to his "strategic use of #tariffs."
* He's convening "the best and brightest" to serve on a new Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. No names yet.