Annual Report 2024 of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office  

The Annual Report 2024 of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office has been published today. It is available in English, German, and French on the Boards’ website.

Delivering decisions of the highest quality continued to be a central priority in 2024. As in previous years, the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal served to ensure harmonization, predictability for parties, and efficiency. Further amendments to the Rules of Procedure entered into force on 1 January 2024, allowing the Boards of Appeal to pursue more ambitious timeliness objectives, in particular by increasing flexibility in case management while ensuring that the parties’ rights are duly safeguarded.

Activities contributing to high quality and harmonization included internal member workshops, professional development activities, and external exchange with national courts, the UPC, users, and representatives.

A total of 1,497 technical appeal cases were received in 2024, and 3,017 technical appeal cases were settled. As of 31 December 2024, 3,387 technical appeal cases were pending, 31% fewer than in 2023. Production in 2024 was almost double the incoming workload, and by June, the Boards of Appeal had reduced the share of cases older than 30 months to less than 10%. With this, all the objectives set following the structural reform of the Boards of Appeal were met. The Boards of Appeal are now working towards an even more ambitious objective: that by the end of 2025, no more than 10% of pending cases will be older than 24 months. Already in 2024, cases older than 24 months decreased from 1,339 cases at the end of 2023 to 729 cases at the end of 2024.

This remarkable success is due to the continued, strong commitment of all the Boards’ chairpersons, members, and support staff.

Read the full report here.

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