About one in a hundred European patent cases ends up before a Board of Appeal. The appeal reviews a decision of a first instance department of the European Patent Office. The appeal proceedings are substantially different from the first instance proceedings; they are a judicial review and not necessarily a continuation of the administrative first instance proceedings. This first aspect is even more pronounced since 1 January 2020, with the changes in the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal.
This books provides an easily readable overview of the appeal proceedings in the three official languages of the EPO: English, German and French, including the (New) Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal and of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. It covers amongst others the (new) requirements on filing of an appeal, the possible actions of the Board, the stricter treatment of late filings of the parties, the conduct of oral proceedings and the issue of the decision. Thus, the book gives an up-to-date account of the most important issues of the appeal proceedings at the Boards of Appeal of the EPO.
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