The Annual Report 2024 of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office has been made available.
The report shows that in line with previous years, appeals of oppositions lead to a different outcome than the first instance proceedings in more than 60% of cases (“Appeal successful in whole or in part”)
The number of pending cases continues to decrease, along with the backlog of cases:
English remains the predominant language of proceedings. Videoconference also remains the most used format for proceedings:
Finally, 2024 also saw an increase in the number of Petitions for Review:
The Board of Appeal announcement on the report can be found here
The full report and all available statistics can be found here
