EPO consultation on boards of appeal reform to close

The European Patent Office (EPO) is nearing the end of an online consultation on its plans to reform its boards of appeal.

According to the office, the consultation is working on “concrete proposals” that it will submit to its supervisory body the Administrative Council (AC) in the coming months.

The consultation is available until tomorrow, June 30.

“The aim is to ensure and increase organisational and managerial autonomy of the boards of appeal, the perception of their independence as well as their efficiency,” the EPO said in a statement.

The EPO’s boards of appeal, of which there are more than 20, are supposed to be independent in their decision making. They are bound only by the European Patent Convention (EPC), the framework that created the EPO.

According to draft proposals for reform, put forward in March this year, the aim is to “improve the functioning of the boards of appeal within the system of the EPO”.

The draft proposals said a new position should be created for a new president of the boards of appeal.

According to the EPO, the office’s president Benoît Battistelli would delegate managerial and organisational tasks for the new role.

The new boards of appeal president will be chair of the appeals boards but not vice president of the EPO, which “will further enhance the autonomous character” of the boards of appeal, the office said.

Earlier this month, the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW) wrote a letter to Battistelli saying it was concerned that the office was attempting to reform the boards of appeal without reforming the EPC.

In the letter, Richard Ebbink, a member of EPLAW, wrote: “We believe that these subjects (autonomy, independence and efficiency) require separate handling. The larger task of a treaty revision should not detract from the benefits the proposed reforms could bring in the interim.”

The subject of the boards of appeal’s independence has attracted interest over the last 12 months.

Last year, Battistelli was criticised by some sections of the EPO’s workforce after he imposed a ‘house ban’ on a member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, one of the appeal boards, following allegations of misconduct.

Battistelli’s decision was backed in December by the AC, which suspended the member.

Some staff claimed Battistelli did not have the authority to ban the member.