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7 December 2016Patents

Battistelli asks to nominate EPO appeals committee members

Benoît Battistelli, the president of the European Patent Office (EPO), has allegedly asked the Administrative Council to adopt an amendment allowing him to make additional appointments to the appeals committee.

According to a communication from Battistelli to the Administrative Council obtained by WIPR, Battistelli will take these “appropriate measures” only if the central staff committee “fails to comply with its obligation to make statutory appointments”.

Battistelli proposes an amendment to the EPO’s legal framework, called the service regulations.

The request follows a judgment made by a UN agency, the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization, on November 30.

The tribunal held that the appeals committee was not “composed in accordance with the applicable rules”, as two members were volunteers and not appointed by the staff committee.

According to EPO rules, the appeals committee should be composed of a chairman and four members, with two of the members appointed by the staff committee.

If the central staff committee fails to make appointments, appropriate steps include “calling for volunteers or drawing lots from among eligible staff members”, according to Battistelli’s request.

He allegedly said that despite “numerous written requests”, the staff committee had not fulfilled its obligation to appoint its members to the appeals committee, which it was supposed to do by October 2014.

“Considering its responsibility to provide means of legal redress, the appeals committee continued functioning on the basis of a reduced composition for the end of 2014 (the chairman and only the two members appointed by the president),” said the request.

According to the document, Battistelli added that because of the repeated refusal, he called on individual staff committee members in December 2014 to volunteer to act as a member of the appeals committee.

A revision of the current service regulations is needed to “guarantee that even in case of failure by the central staff committee to appoint members, measures can then be taken in accordance with the service regulations to ensure proper functioning of the internal system of justice”, said the request.

A source close to the Staff Union of the European Patent Office said: “Once more we are sad that instead of fixing what he has broken (namely a functioning internal appeals committee), Battistelli’s new proposal shows that he solely aims to circumvent the central staff committee.”

They added that the staff committee had “solid legal reasons not to nominate staff into the internal committee after two of its members had been downgraded by Battistelli”.

It is unclear when the Administrative Council will hear the request, although should it adopt the decision, it will enter into force on January 1, 2017.

A spokesperson for the EPO said it does not comment on allegations.

“The issue of the proper functioning of our internal dispute resolution system is a serious one which deserves a serious debate with the delegations of our member states in the Administrative Council of the EPO,” they said.

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