User consultation on proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal
The Boards of Appeal Committee and the President of the Boards of Appeal invite users to participate in an online consultation on proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal.
Following the structural reform of the Boards of Appeal, the President of the Boards of Appeal formulated five-year objectives to reduce the number of pending cases to below 7 000 and to settle 90% of cases within 30 months by 2023. Having achieved the first of these objectives in 2022 with the second soon to be fulfilled, the Boards of Appeal will be able to pursue more ambitious timeliness objectives in the future while continuing to render decisions of the highest quality.
The envisaged gradual move to deal with cases as soon as they are transferred to the Boards of Appeal will provide users with increased legal certainty by allowing the Boards to settle cases more quickly and within more predictable timeframes. The proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal aim to provide the required modifications to the procedural framework to achieve this. Further details on the proposed amendments, which concern a shortening of the standard period for filing the reply to the statement of grounds of appeal as well as a strengthening of the position of parties in the application of the convergent approach, are provided in the consultation document.
The online consultation was launched today and is open for participation until 12:00 hrs CEST on 11 September 2023.
Contact
Nikolaus Obrovski
Jeannine Hoppe
Spokespersons of the Boards of Appeal
Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office
Richard-Reitzner-Allee 8 | 85540 Haar | Germany
boa-press@epo.org