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.pdfThe 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.
❤️“Cancelling the target country’s intellectual property rights” ❤️
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.
Stop, I can only get so erect!
Right? That’s not a threat. Lol
“Please, God, it would be so fucking funny”
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”?
No, because someone else will file for the exact same patent locally at the exact moment the law is invoked.
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”?
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.
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
Literally the best thing that could happen to the world
The EU about to unleash the pirate parties on the US
Trump really does feel like what you get if you download “strong_president.mp3” off of livewire
strong_president.mp3.exe
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?
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.
There’s also other fun regulations like it being illegal for EU companies to comply with US sanctions on Cuba. If they ever hit a roadblock of any kind they’re required to contact the EU commission who will help out in the form of civil servants specialised in sanction busting.
the EU can just suspend American patents and copyrights
Heads up that last link is broken.
Ah thank you, fixed now.
This feels like parental punishment and I’m all for it. lol
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.
Lol, did you notice you can opt out of tracking cookies on Meta, or that iPhones have USB-C connectors?
EU regulations got some pull. And also give a fair few fines.
What’s cited is a little bit more than those regulations, homie.
Agreed, and as EU has a history of enforcing regulations, even against the “untouchables” you mentioned, I have expectations that they will again.
I can only hope so. Given the right rot in the Union though, I’m doubtful.
Well, many American companies would riot at their government if their patents in the EU were suddenly void.
I really hope they do it and you’re right.
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.
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.
Why would you want to advertise that you have worse coffee than everyone else.
I don’t drink coffee, so I can’t speak for its quality, but my understanding is that Starbucks is pretty popular.
Go speak to a frenchman
I just realized that I had forgotten about polandball and now I miss it.
[email protected]: 273 subscribers
[email protected]: 110
[email protected]: 51
[email protected]: 4Given .world is a huge instance I vote for .ee. Go subscribe and post!
That’s weird, your message says .world has 273 subscribers, but if I open the sidebar it says 0.
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.
Me too!
Now I wonder about the etymology of polandball …
Well you see, they took the flag of Poland, and drew it as a ball
Now do Kazakhstanbrick!
Is EU not tariffed yet?
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!
Hope Mercosur get to that level kn my lifetime
nope
It’s not morning yet
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.
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?
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.
Which they’re talking about doing anyway
Yeah and even you know about it which means that it’s probably a negotiating tactic.
US is already heading that way, very little to lose.
