Tuesday, December 14, 2021 Moving back from Haar?

Today, an EPO news message was published in the EPO website indicating that the President of the EPO and the President of the Boards of Appeal have proposed to the Administrative Council to relocate the Boards back from Haar to the city center, more specifically to Pschorr-Höfe 7 in Munich, owned by the EPO (Bayerstrasse area).

The news message reads:

Plan to relocate Boards of Appeal presented to EPO member states

14 December 2021

EPO President António Campinos and President of the Boards of Appeal Carl Josefsson have made a joint proposal today to the EPO's member states to relocate the Boards of Appeal from the Munich district of Haar to the city centre. A detailed proposal for the relocation of the Boards of Appeal will be presented for approval of the EPO member states by spring 2022.

Further information:

Joint declaration

 

• The Joint declaration reads [colour added]:

Joint Declaration

of the President of the European Patent Office and

of the President of the Boards of Appeal

on the re-location of the Boards of Appeal

CONSIDERING the decision of the Administrative Council of 30 June 2016 (CA/43/16 Rev.1) on a comprehensive reform of the structures, management and career scheme of the Boards of Appeal aiming at improving the organisational autonomy of the Boards of Appeal and the perception of independence in their activities;

CONSIDERING the decision of the Administrative Council of 30 June 2016 (CA/D 6/16) amending the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention and establishing the rules governing the organisation and management of the Boards of Appeal and President of the Boards of Appeal;

CONSIDERING the decision of the Administrative Council of 30 June 2016 (CA/D 7/16) setting up a Boards of Appeal Committee and adopting its Regulations;

CONSIDERING the decision of the Administrative Council of 30 June 2016 (CA/43/16 rev. 1 – Part C) concerning the relocation of the Boards of Appeal in a separate building in Munich;

CONSIDERING the decision of the Administrative Council of 16 October 2016 (CA/82/16) to conclude a rental agreement for the new location of the Boards of Appeal in Haar;

CONSIDERING the Memorandum of Understanding between the President of the Office and the President of the Boards of Appeal on the organisational autonomy of the Boards of Appeal, signed on 29 June 2019;

WHEREAS the rental contract for the building in Haar was concluded in 2017, for the duration of 15 years, ending in 2032, and an additional contract concluded in 2019, for the duration of 84 months, ending in 2026;

WHEREAS the Office will introduce the New Ways of working (CA 77/21) in 2022 for a three-year pilot;

The President of the Boards of Appeal and the President of the Office jointly propose to the Administrative Council to re-locate the Boards of Appeal from Haar to the building Pschorr-Höfe 7 in Munich, owned by the EPO, as of 2025/2026.

Munich, 10 December 2021

António Campinos           Carl Josefsson

President of the Office     President of the Boards of Appeal

Tuesday, May 05, 2015 Online consultation on reforms to the EPO boards of appeal

The European Patent Organisation has launched a structural reform of its Boards of Appeal. 

The main features of the proposed reform are described in the document (CA/16/15), which has been presented by the President of the European Patent Office to the Administrative Council in March and has met with broad support. The Council gave its general support to the policy lines as presented. First concrete proposals will be elaborated for decision at the next Council meeting, in June 2015. These proposals will have to take due account of contributions received as a result of a broad consultation of stakeholders. The user consultation was launched on 30 April and will run until 30 June 2015.

The aim of the reform is to ensure and increase the organisational and managerial autonomy of the Boards of Appeal, the perception of their independence as enshrined in Article 23 EPC, as well as their efficiency within the legal framework of the current European Patent Convention.

The aim is also to take account of national, European and international developments aiming at enhancing the autonomy of the Judiciary and/or the efficiency.

The European Patent Office, which will prepare the relevant concrete proposals to be submitted to the Administrative Council, would welcome contributions from the users of the European patent system concerning possible improvements of the functioning of the Boards of Appeal with respect to both their autonomy and the perception of their independence and their efficiency. Contributions from the users will be duly considered in the preparation of the future concrete proposals and presented to the Administrative Council. Contributions will be processed and presented to the Administrative Council in an anonymised manner and an excerpt of the contributions will be made available to the general public.

The EPO in particular welcomes contributions concerning the following questions:

• Question A: Position of the Boards of Appeal – Independence
• Question B. Work of the Boards of Appeal - Efficiency
• Question C. Work of the Boards of Appeal – Procedure 
• Question D. Boards of Appeals Committee (BOAC)
• Question E. Proceedings of petitions for review
• Question F. General

The user consultation will run until 30 June 2015, and is available to June 30, 2015 on the EPO website under https://forms.epo.org/law-practice/consultation/ongoing/boards-of-appeal-form.html.

Source: EPO website, Ongoing User Consultations, https://forms.epo.org/law-practice/consultation/ongoing/boards-of-appeal-form.html and http://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2015/20150430.html