22% rise in cases settled by EPO Boards of Appeal

The number of cases settled by the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office increased by 22% last year, a new report shows.

The  2018 Annual report of the Boards of Appeal, published yesterday, April 30, announced that the boards had exceeded their 2018 objectives.

The report also outlined a number of improvements after the boards were reformed in 2017.

It said that in 2018, a total of 3,032 technical appeal cases were received, 8.4% more than in 2017. It said that of these, 2,733 were settled. This was a 19.7% increase compared with the same period in 2017.

Additionally, the report said 1,544 inter partes cases were settled in 2018, up from 1,279 in 2017.

It said the boards are “well on track” to meet their five-year objective to settle 90% of cases within 30 months of receipt and to reduce the number of pending cases to less than 7,000.

It said “significant additional resources in terms of manpower and facilities” will be necessary in the coming years in order to further increase timeliness and reduce the number of pending cases.

According to the report, Boards of Appeal president, Carl Josefsson, has set standard timescales for issuing minutes and decisions after oral proceedings to help achieve this objective.

Josefsson said he was happy to report that the implementation of the reform has been successful.

"We have taken a wide set of different measures to bring the structural reform to life, and these measures are already yielding significant results,” he said.

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