EPO Boards of Appeal Set to Move Back to Central Munich from Haar

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced plans to relocate the Boards of Appeal from Haar (a suburb of Munich) back to the city centre area of Munich, where the rest of the EPO is based.

Before the move goes ahead, a detailed proposal will need to be approved by the EPO member states at the next Administrative Council in March 2022. The EPO currently plans for the relocation to take place in 2025/2026.

The plans reverse the move made in 2017 when the Boards of Appeal relocated from the centre of Munich to Haar. The move was not hugely popular at the time and indeed resulted in a referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal in G2/19 (see our report here). It is expected that the return to the city centre of Munich will be welcome news for users of the European patent system.