Article 15

BOARDS OF APPEAL

Business distribution scheme of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal 2025¹

The Chair of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office, having regard to Article 1 of the Additional Rules of Procedure of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office, adopts the following business distribution scheme:

Article 1

Members of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal

The members of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal are:

Chair:

Carl Josefsson

(a) Professional representatives:

Pierre H. Gendraud

Selda Arkan

Stefano Colombo

Cornelia Rebbereh

Jakob P. Frederiksen

Peter Walser

Koen Bijvank

(b) Legally qualified members:

Ingo Beckedorf*

Tamás Bokor

Georg Decker

Peter Guntz

Anna Bacchin

Richard Winkelhofer

Yvonne Podbielski

Aurélie Jimenez

Article 2

Composition of the Board for a particular appeal

(1) The Chair shall determine the composition of the Board responsible for deciding on the appeal from amongst the Board members.

(2) In determining the composition, the Chair shall, apart from Article 10, paragraph 4, of the Regulation on discipline for professional representatives, take account in particular of the workload of each member and the language requirements of the case.

(3) The rapporteur shall be designated in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Additional Rules of Procedure of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal.

(4) Where appeals pending before the Board are closely linked, in particular by involving similar legal or factual questions, the Chair may order that the Board shall decide on them in the same composition.

Article 3

Replacement of members

If a member cannot or can no longer participate in a case for which they have been designated, the Chair shall designate another member of the Board to replace that member, having regard in particular to the criteria indicated in paragraph 2.

Article 4

Exclusion and objection

(1) For the purpose of taking a decision on exclusion or objection under Article 16 of the Regulation on discipline for professional representatives, the Chair in the particular appeal or other members concerned shall be replaced by their alternates.

(2) The alternate to the Chair shall be the Chair's deputy as set out in Article 1(b).

(3) The alternate to a professional representative shall be the next professional representative on the list as set out in Article 1(a), with the first member on the list being the alternate to the last one on the list.

(4) The alternate to a legally qualified member shall be the next internal legally qualified member on the list as set out in Article 1(b), with the first member on the list being the alternate to the last one on the list.

(5) If the alternate according to paragraphs 2 to 4 is unavailable, the next member on the respective list shall become the alternate.

Article 5

Term of validity

This business distribution scheme shall apply from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2025.

Done at Haar on 19 December 2024

The Chair

C. JOSEFSSON