The Boards of Appeal publishes the “Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO” (“Case Law Book”) every three years, providing users with a comprehensive overview of the jurisprudence of the Boards of Appeal. To ensure that the publication continues to benefit stakeholders, a survey was conducted to invite users to provide feedback on the publication.
The survey received 690 responses comprising of 363 patent attorneys, 265 EPO/BoA staff members, 24 lawyers, and 38 “other” respondents (including judges, academics, NPO staff).
The results confirmed that the Case Law Book is a highly valued resource across the user community, “power users” being primarily patent attorneys and internal staff. Across all respondents, 40% stated they used it at least once a week and 40% used it monthly. The great majority of respondents stated their main reason for accessing the Case Law Book was the preparation of cases or applications, with 85% of patent attorneys attesting to this.
The Case Law Book is used in all three languages, with 51% of respondents citing English as the language they use it most in. For 9% and 18% respectively, the French and German versions were the main language versions used, while 22% stated they use a combination of two or all languages depending on the circumstances. Almost two thirds of respondents stated that future editions should be retained in all three languages even if this resulted in less frequent updates. Machine translations were rejected as an alternative to the current format.
In 2024, annual interim revisions and updates to selected sections of the publication were introduced ahead of the next triennial edition to keep users informed of developments in the case law. This approach to updating the Case Law Book was favoured by almost two thirds of respondents while a third favoured “rolling updates” rather than triennial editions.
The tenth edition is the first online-only version of the publication. The survey showed that the PDF version was still being very much relied upon (40%), with users not being aware of all the features the HTML version offers or having difficulty using it. The “New Decisions” sidebar on the HTML version lists important recent cases in their thematic context and is updated quarterly. This feature was used by 32% of respondents. In response to user feedback with regard to search functionality, improvements are being implemented such as linking abstracts to the “New Decisions” sidebar, updating the Reader’s Guide, and improving the search tool.
The Legal Research Service of the Boards of Appeal thanks the respondents for their valuable feedback and will continue their efforts to optimise the publication so that it remains a fit-for-purpose and valued reference resource for its stakeholders.
