The revised Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA) were adopted by the Boards of Appeal Committee of EPO on 4 April 2019 and were unanimously approved by the Administrative Council at its 160th meeting on 26 and 27 June 2019.
The new rules will come into force on 1 January 2020, and are therefore referenced below as “RPBA 2020”.
The aims of the revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal are to increase (i) efficiency, by reducing the number of issues to be treated, (ii) predictability for the parties and (iii) harmonisation. In addition, important elements of case management have been introduced so as to allow the Boards of Appeal to organise their work and use their resources in a more efficient way.
Please note that the RPBA 2020 will, in general, apply to any appeal pending on, or filed after, the date of their entry into force.
Each of the three language versions is available below in PDF format. The PDF files contain the text of the revised Rules of Procedure as well as a table setting out the current version of the RPBA (in force until 31 December 2019) in the left-hand column, the amendments in the middle column, and explanatory remarks in the right-hand column.
Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal – in force from 1 January 2020
Verfahrensordnung der Beschwerdekammern – in Kraft ab 1. Januar 2020
Règlement de procédure des chambres de recours – entrée en vigueur le 1er janvier 2020
Source: European Patent Office
