Resived Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal in force from 1 January 2020


On 4 July 2019, a communication was posted  the Board of Appeal website indicating that the revised Rules of Procedure were approved by the Administrative Council and will come into force on 1 January 2020. 


We reported on the User Conference and the draft in earlier post of 14 Dec 2018 (link). 

The final version has a few changes compared to the earlier draft, in particular to the transitional provisions in Art. 25 RPBA 2020.

The full text of the Communication is cited below:

Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal - in force from 1 January 2020


The revised Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA) were adopted by the Boards of Appeal Committee on 4 April 2019 and were unanimously approved by the Administrative Council at its 160th meeting on 26 and 27 June 2019. They 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 (see Article 25 RPBA 2020).
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 1erjanvier 2020

Text taken from the Communication on the Board of Appeal website (here), emphasis added.
Also refer to the report on the 160th meeting of the Administrative Council (here) and our blog on the User Conference (here).

Earlier information from the EPO
14 December 2018 Revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal - Report on the user consultation conference in Munich on 5 December 20185 December 2018 User consultation conference on the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (programme)
29 October 2018 Revised draft of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal
9 October 2018 User consultation conference on the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal
5.2.2018 - 30.4.2018 Summary of responses to first draft
5.2.2018 - 30.4.2018 Revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal - first public draft 

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