Brussels, 1st April 2012 -- The Council of European ministers agreed today on the location of the future European Patent Court, which is going to be located in Sealand, 10 kilometers off the English coast. The European patent community has finally achieved independence from elected parliaments.
Georg Friedrich Reichmann, patent attorney in Munich, is happy about the agreement: "Sealand is the perfect location for the court. Since the patent system is a very special part of law, it should have its own court clearly detached from the law of the Member States. It is the final victory for the patent community to achieve independence - we have been trying to achieve that for more than 50 years." Jan Schultz, a respected patent judge of Germany, comments: "I am a bit concerned with the accessibility of the place, but I am sure the British government will provide helicopters at the disposal of the judges and the litigants. Flying judges will become a reality." An ex-member of the European Court of Justice, who wanted to remain anonymous, mentioned to us: "Sealand is not part of the European Union, and it reflects the non-EU nature of this agreement. The European Parliament has basically committed suicide in patent law by giving green light to that kind of agreement." A press spokesman of the EPO said: "The European Patent Convention (EPC) is the perfect legal instrument for the foundations of the court. The EPO is based on the EPC, and we have enjoyed very much our independence from elected politicians for nearly 30 years." Erik Angström, from the PirateBay: "We did not succeed in raising enough funds to buy Sealand, now the patent establishment succeeded in raising more money than we did. Nevertheless, will use the money raised to purchase another island somewhere, to declare it a sovereign nation like the european patent community did". Links ===== * Principality of Sealand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand * Pirate Bay attempting to buy Sealand, create sovereign nation: http://bunchofnerds.com/category/pirate-bay/ * Pirates of Sealand: http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvery/4291003498/ * Permanent link to this press release: https://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/EU%20Patent%20Court%20will%20be%20located%20in%20Sealand%2C%20ministers%20say Contact ======= Benjamin Henrion FFII Brussels Mobile: +32 484 566109 Email: [email protected] About FFII ========== The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. _______________________________________________ FFII Press Releases. (un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact [email protected] for more information.
