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

Thursday, July 18, 2019 G 2/19 - Breaking: Haar belongs to Munich

We refer to our previous blog post about referral G 2/19 (and this related post). In G 2/19, the following questions were referred to the Enlarged Board:

(1) In appeal proceedings, is the right to oral proceedings under Article 116 EPC restricted if the appeal is prima facie inadmissible?

(2) If the answer to Question 1 is yes, is an appeal against the decision to grant a patent prima facie inadmissible in this sense, which Appeal has been filed by a third party within the meaning of Article 115 EPC and which has been substantiated by arguing that there is no alternative remedy under the EPC against a decision of the Examining Division not to consider the third party’s objections concerning the alleged contravention of Article 84 EPC?

(3) If the answer to one of the first two questions is no, can the Board hold oral proceedings in Haar without violating Article 116 EPC, if the appellant complains that this location is not in conformity with the EPC and requests that the oral proceedings be moved to Munich?

Today, the following communication was posted on the EPO website:

Haar, 17 July 2019 

Yesterday the Enlarged Board of Appeal announced its decision in case G 2/19 at the conclusion of the oral proceedings. The first referred question was rejected as inadmissible. The second and third referred questions were reformulated and answered as follows: 

1. Ein Dritter im Sinne von Artikel 115 EPÜ, der gegen die Entscheidung über die Erteilung eines europäischen Patents Beschwerde eingelegt hat, hat keinen Anspruch darauf, dass vor einer Beschwerdekammer des Europäischen Patentamtes mündlich über sein Begehren verhandelt wird, zur Beseitigung vermeintlich undeutlicher Patentansprüche (Artikel 84 EPÜ) des europäischen Patents den erneuten Eintritt in das Prüfungsverfahren anzuordnen. Eine solchermaßen eingelegte Beschwerde entfaltet keine aufschiebende Wirkung. 

2. Mündliche Verhandlungen der Beschwerdekammern an deren Standort in Haar verstoßen nicht gegen die Artikel 113 (1) und 116 (1) EPÜ. 

The reasons for the decision will be issued in writing in due course.

It would appear that the Enlarged Board found that Haar belongs to the greater Munich area, thus not contradicting the provisions of the EPC concerning the location of the EPO.

Furthermore, a third party within the meaning of Article 115 EPC, who has filed an appeal against the decision to grant a European patent, has no right to an oral hearing before a Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office on his request to re-examine allegedly unclear patent claims (Article 84 EPC) in the European patent.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019 T 0403/18 - Ad hoc move of oral proceedings from Haar to Munich

As reported earlier on this blog, the Enlarged Board of Appeal will have to decide whether or not the Boards of Appeal may properly summon parties to oral proceedings at their premises in Haar.

Alluding to this pending referral, in the present case T 0403/18 one of the parties present at an oral hearing in Haar requested that this hearing be held in Munich. As can be inferred from the minutes of this hearing (the written decision has not been published yet), with agreement of all parties the oral proceedings were indeed relocated to the former home of the Boards of Appeal in Munich, i.e. the Isar building at the Bob-van-Benthem-Platz:

"At the beginning of the oral proceedings at 09:00 hrs in the premises of Haar, the respondents relied on decision T 0831/17 of 25 February 2019 referring a question of law regarding the proper venue of oral proceedings and requested that the oral proceedings in case T 0403/18 be held in Munich. The matter was discussed with the parties. With the agreement of all parties the oral proceedings were postponed to take place in Room 111 in the EPO venue of oral proceedings and requested that the oral proceedings in case T 0403/18 be held in Munich. The matter was discussed with the parties. With the agreement of all parties the oral proceedings were postponed to take place in Room 111 in the EPO's building at Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1 (formerly Erhardtstrasse 27) in Munich starting at 13:00 hrs on the same date."

It will be interesting to see whether pending the referral to the Enlarged Board more Boards (possibly as a precautionary measure) will adopt the same approach.