Spyke
lemmy.jlh.name

This seems to be referencing Regulation (EU) 654/2014, an EU law which allows the EU to unilaterally enact countermeasures against countries that break the WTO's rules.

The countermeasures listed in article 5 are:

  • Imposing tarriffs and customs duties
  • Trade restrictions/quotas
  • Cancelling contracts between the EU and the target country
  • Cancelling the target country's intellectual property rights (e.g. patents/copyrights)
  • Banning public procurement from the target country
  • Implementing price penalties for public procurement from the target country

The law was amended in Regulation (EU) 2021/167 in response to the Trump (and now Biden) administrations blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO and using a loophole to kill the WTO's enforcement mechanism.

More context from the EU parliament:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/652021/EPRS_BRI(2020)652021_EN.pdf

The fact that the EU can just suspend American patents and copyrights is pretty insane. Could be some huge benefits for European companies and movie pirates.

273
sopuli.xyz

❤️“Cancelling the target country's intellectual property rights” ❤️

200
sopuli.xyz

If EU did that, it would probably result in equal retaliation. It would mean that all patents and IP would become local. Stealing these things from others continents would become fair game, which would make patents and IP almost completely pointless.

Could we please try that out? Sounds like an interesting scenario.

112
lemmy.world

Parents and IP would become local

You're telling me we could have more diverse innovation that catered to the needs of individuals if we allowed people to create tools that help them and their neighbors instead of saying "some guy decided a hundred years ago, on the other side of the planet, that this is what this tool looked like. If you call something else by this name we'll sue you and if you call something that looks like this something else we'll sue you for that too"?

19
einkornreply
feddit.org

No, because someone else will file for the exact same patent locally at the exact moment the law is invoked.

-1
lemmy.world

Can you imagine how much harder it would be to be a corrupt asshole if instead of screwing over millions unnamed people, you had to go and look all 30 of the relevant people in your life in the face and go "I wanna suck the money out of you by becoming the sole proprietor of this tool"?

2
einkornreply
feddit.org

The EU represents roughly 450 million people. I can hardly think of a patent that might affect only 30 people, given this number.

Also, psychopaths exist on either side of the Atlantic.

0

That's kind of part of my point. Make it even more local than the EU. Make it local to your town or even smaller

1
Soulgreply
sh.itjust.works

Trump really does feel like what you get if you download "strong_president.mp3" off of livewire

20
KnoLordreply
lemmy.zip

Thanks for context!

I hope that as soon as the US will act more iffy, these countermeasures will kick in, as even the US should know then that they aren't all mighty.

I don't know if you have more info, but are these measures reversible or absolute?

56

The regulation text says that the measures are enacted by the European Commission putting out an implementing act. Article 7 says that they may repeal the implementation if the third country resolves the conflict. So it seems that they can only remove the measures if the third country gives up.

30

This feels like parental punishment and I'm all for it. lol

6
atro_cityreply
fedia.io

The EU would need to have the balls first. USAian propaganda has seeped into this continent for so long that it has affected the populace deeply. If the EU did something to threaten iPhone, WhatsApp, or Starbucks availability in the EU, that would be cause for an uprising.

-7
atro_cityreply
fedia.io

What's cited is a little bit more than those regulations, homie.

-7

I can only hope so. Given the right rot in the Union though, I'm doubtful.

13
lemmy.world

Well, many American companies would riot at their government if their patents in the EU were suddenly void.

20
Justinreply
lemmy.jlh.name

Signal is simply just better than whatsapp, and I don't think starbucks would be affected. I guess Apple could OTA brick iphones though, true.

11
scutigerreply
lemmy.world

Imagine if you could open up your own Starbucks anywhere in the EU, including using logos etc. without having to deal with franchising from an American company.

8
barsoapreply
lemm.ee

Why would you want to advertise that you have worse coffee than everyone else.

8

I don't drink coffee, so I can't speak for its quality, but my understanding is that Starbucks is pretty popular.

2
startrek.website

I just realized that I had forgotten about polandball and now I miss it.

112
Faridreply
startrek.website

That's weird, your message says .world has 273 subscribers, but if I open the sidebar it says 0.

1

Maybe noone from startrek.website is subscribed there? Lemmy is lazy when it comes to these kinds of things, not caring to keep up with foreign communities if noone is interested.

3
Valmondreply
lemmy.world

Me too!

Now I wonder about the etymology of polandball ...

15
Soulgreply
sh.itjust.works

Well you see, they took the flag of Poland, and drew it as a ball

21
lemmy.world

Probably won’t be either! The original purpose of our alliance was precisely so that our very small and smallish countries wouldn’t be fucked by economic superpowers!

75
lemmy.ml

The US and Britain blew up the Nordstream pipeline. The EU is dependent on the US for energy unless they devise a solution with Russia. This will be used to America's advantage.

-22
Varcourreply
lemm.ee

I hear Canada has a fair bit of oil they used to sell to the US. Maybe they are looking for a new trade partner?

21
Manmothreply
lemmy.ml

They can do that if they want the US to leave NATO or something else to that effect. There is no equal and opposite recourse.

-13

Yeah and even you know about it which means that it's probably a negotiating tactic.

-10