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.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017 T 914/13 - One 71(3) in the hand worth two in the bush?

During oral proceedings before the Examining Division, an auxiliary request of the applicant was found to meet the requirements of the EPC.  However, in response to the Rule 71(3) EPC communication, the applicant reverted to earlier higher-ranking requests. The application was refused by the ED. 

The applicant appeals, but in its preliminary opinion, the BoA essentially concurs with the ED in respect of the higher-ranking requests, and additionally finds claim 2 of the auxiliary request for which the intention to grant was issued earlier to contravene Art. 84 EPC.

Ultimately, the applicant files a sole main request based on the subject matter of the 'previously allowed' auxiliary request but with claim 2 deleted, and argues that, except for claim 2 having been deleted, the claims of the main request correspond to those on the basis of which the ED had issued its intention to grant during the examination proceedings.

However, rather than ordering a grant, the BoA remits the case back to the ED for further prosecution, while noting that it is not bound to the previous intention to grant, and suggesting that the arguments provided by the applicant in support of inventive step of the main request were to be heard.

Saturday, May 16, 2015 R 8/13 - Call for a Diplomatic Conference

Prior to the oral proceedings in petition for review proceedings before the Enlarged Board in its five-member composition, the petitioners, by letter dated 2 June 2014, filed further submissions in support of their petition and, on pages 12 and 13 of those submissions, stated with reference to R 19/12 that: "In any event as an auxiliary measure and in order to safeguard the rights of the petitioners-patentees and not to be precluded in other proceedings, we herewith object to the chairman of the current composition of the Enlarged Board of Appeal in this case for suspicion of partiality in line with the reasoning of R 19/12".

The reader may find the below worthwhile in view of the EPO's Online consultation: Boards of Appeal (click here), where the The European Patent Office invites of users of the European patent system concerning to suggest and comment on 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. The user consultation will run until 30 June 2015.
The consultation is done in the context of a structural reform of its Boards of Appeal that has been launched by the European Patent Organisation. The main features of the proposed reform are described in the document (CA/16/15 (pdf)), which has been presented by the European Patent Office to the Administrative Council in March and has met with broad support. 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. 
See also the EPO News message of 30 April 2015.

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