Appeal procedure before the European Patent Office

The European Patent Convention (EPC), the multilateral treaty instituting the legal system according to which European patents are granted, contains provisions allowing a party to appeal a decision issued by a first instance department of the European Patent Office (EPO). For instance, a decision of an Examining Division refusing to grant a European patent application may be appealed by the applicant. The appeal procedure before the European Patent Office is under the responsibility of its Boards of Appeal, which are institutionally independent within the EPO.

Decisions of the first instance departments of the European Patent Office (EPO) can be appealed, i.e. challenged, before the Boards of Appeal of the EPO, in a judicial procedure (proper to an administrative court), as opposed to an administrative procedure. These boards act as the final instances in the granting and opposition procedures before the EPO. The Boards of Appeal have been recognised as courts, or tribunals, of an international organisation, the EPO.

The Boards of Appeal of the EPO, including the Enlarged Board of Appeal, are based at the headquarters of the EPO in Munich, Germany. This contrasts with the Examining Divisions and Opposition Divisions, the first instance departments carrying the examination of patent applications and of oppositions to granted European patents, which may be in Munich, in Rijswijk (a suburb of The Hague, Netherlands), or in Berlin, Germany.

In addition to the Boards of Appeal, the European Patent Office has an "Enlarged Board of Appeal" (sometimes abbreviated "EBoA" or "EBA"). This board does not constitute an additional level of jurisdiction in the classical sense. The Enlarged Board of Appeal, which is fundamentally a legal instance in charge of deciding on points of law, has the following three functions.

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