Appeal seminar in Madrid
On 22 November 2023, the seminar « A fresh look at procedural aspects of appeal proceedings » was given in Madrid. It was presented by Michele Maremonti (member of the boards of appeal) and Cees Mulder (epi speaker). There were 25 participants in the conference room. The seminar was moderated by Isabel Pato (PEC member).
The cycle of opposition and appeal seminars started 10 years ago when Marcus Müller (currently, Chair of board of appeal 3.3.02) contacted epi with the idea of an opposition and appeal seminar and then Paolo Rambelli (at that time Chair of PEC) suggested Cees Mulder as speaker on behalf of epi. And this is how Marcus Müller and Cees Mulder gave their first « Opposition and Appeal » seminar on 3 December 2013 in Milano. Before the lunch break, the speakers would deal with opposition and the afternoon was devoted to appeal proceedings.
Since then, around four seminars per year were given at various cities all over Europe. During the Covid-19 period, there was a limited number of online/hybrid seminars.
From statistical data collected by the Education department of the epi Secretariat, the 31 seminars in 10 years attracted around 2,500 participants of which were around 2,200 European patent attorneys (= more than 15% of all epi members).
In the beginning, the speaker on behalf of the boards of appeal was Marcus Müller. In recent years, his colleague Michele Maremonti was the alternate speaker on behalf of the boards.
In 2020, the new Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA) entered into force, and since then the focus of the seminars shifted to the procedural aspects of appeal proceedings with emphasis on new case law developed under the 2020 RPBA. Since then, opposition is only dealt with to the extent that this is necessary for and relevant to appeal proceedings.
Based in the success of the seminars, Edward Elgar invited Marcus Müller and Cees Mulder to write a book. The first edition of the book « Proceedings before the European Patent Office – A Practical Guide to Success in Opposition and Appeal » issued in February2015 at the occasion of the opposition and appeal seminar at CIPA in London. A second edition of the book was published in 2020 with an outlook on the 2020 RPBA. Currently, the authors are planning a book focussing on appeal proceedings only.
The seminar in Madrid was the last one with Cees Mulder as epi speaker. From 2024, his role will be taken over by Erik Nijs (NL).
At the beginning of the seminar in Madrid, epi President Peter Thomson joined by video link expressing his gratitude to Cees Mulder for his long-term contribution to continuous professional education in epi.
