Transparent and impartial oppositions

Our Goal: to provide impartial and legally valid decisions on time.

The EPO’s opposition procedure gives third parties the opportunity to potentially have a patent revoked or maintained in amended form for all states where the patent is in force. In its opposition procedure, the EPO strives to act with the utmost impartiality and deliver legally valid decisions on time.

Each opposition case is dealt with by three highly experienced examiners. When required, the opposition can be further supplemented by a legal member.

Overall satisfaction levels from our most recent survey (satisfied plus very satisfied) stood at 70% for the procedure overall, with 79% of respondents being very/satisfied with how fairly they were treated and 78% very/satisfied with the technical competence of the opposition division.

The EPO President’s decision that oral proceedings by video conference are the default in opposition proceedings is a course of action which increases transparency and access to justice. See statistics

For more information, please see the Quality Report 2022.