CASE LAW
FOREWORD
by the Vice-President
In 2009, the boards of appeal settled 1 979 cases. The first part of the present case law report describes board of appeal activities and gives various statistics. The second part summarises the case law developed in 2009. Annexed to the report are the headnotes of decisions scheduled for publication in the Official Journal of the European Patent Office.
On 13 December 2007, the revised version of the European Patent Convention (EPC 2000) entered into force. In keeping with the citation style that has applied in Office publications since then, "EPC 1973" here refers to the version applicable before EPC 2000 came into force, while "EPC" on its own means EPC 2000.
As in the past, the present report is intended to facilitate access, through its systematic approach, to the new developments in the boards' case law. The same proven format has been used: dividing the case law into topics, then illustrating each by short summaries of selected decisions.
My special thanks go to the members of our Legal Research Service (Dept. 3.0.30) who with great commitment have produced the present report. They also go to the EPO Language Service, without whose energetic co-operation simultaneous publication in all three official languages would not have been possible, and to all the other EPO staff who have helped produce the present publication.
I hope that all those who read the report will find it useful.
Peter Messerli
Vice-President DG 3
Chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal