Decisions of the EPO boards of appeal

You can use decisions of the boards of appeal to:

• find out the outcome of proceedings before the boards of appeal
• retrieve data in XML format
• integrate records from the database into your own search interface, database or search engine

Getting started

1. Check the sample data.
2. Order the product from csc@epo.org.
3. Use your user credentials (which will be sent to you via email) to get data from the download area.

Conditions

Coverage	1979 onwards
Format	XML
Volume	Approx. 200 MB (zipped)
Delivery	Backfile data is available for download twice a year. Frontfile data in the same format is not available.
Price	The data is free, but we charge an annual service fee for bulk data. Please visit our shop for prices.

The EPO's bulk data sets are also referred to as "raw data products" or "EPO databases".

The terms and conditions for licensing of EPO databases apply.

Further information

The Boards of Appeal are composed of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, 28 technical boards of appeal, the Legal Board of Appeal and the Disciplinary Board of Appeal.

Decision types: G: Enlarged Board of Appeal; T: Technical board of appeal; J: Legal Board of Appeal; W: PCT protest cases; R: Petitions for review under Art. 112a; D: Disciplinary Board of Appeal.

For statistics on the appeals procedure, see the Annual Report of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO published in the Official Journal of the EPO. The public is informed about the decisions of the boards via the European Patent Register and the Official Journal of the EPO. A systematic overview is published regularly as the "Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office".

A database of decisions is also available online.

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European Case Law identifier (ECLI) sitemap

Search in the Boards of Appeal decisions database