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Boards of Appeal

The Boards of Appeal are responsible for deciding on appeals from decisions from the first instance in trade mark as well as design matters. Any party adversely affected by a decision may file an appeal

Members of the Boards of Appeal
The Boards of Appeal are headed by the President of the Boards of Appeal who is appointed by the Council of Ministers from a list prepared by the Administrative Board of the Office. He has managerial and organisational powers and chairs the Presidium as well as the Grand Board. The chairpersons of the other Boards are appointed in the same way by the Council of Ministers. They have managerial and organisational powers in relation to their respective Boards and are, inter alia, responsible for appointing the Rapporteur in each appeal case. They chair their Boards in all cases.

The other members of the Boards of Appeal are appointed by the Administrative Board of the Office.

The Boards of Appeal are part of the Office and there is a functional continuity between them and the first instance which means that they may have to accept additional elements that were put forward to them by the parties. In deciding a case, however, the members of the Boards of Appeal are independent and not bound by any instructions of the Office. This means, that they are only bound by the law in the interpretation given by the Court of First Instance and the Court of Justice.

Structure of the Boards of Appeal
The Boards of Appeal consist of four Boards exclusively dedicated to trade mark matters and one Board working only on design. Additionally, the Grand Board may hear any case with respect to trade marks and designs. A Board of Appeal deciding on a case consists of three members, including the chairperson of the respective Board. Two of the members must be legally qualified. However, specific cases may be decided by the Grand Board or by a single member.

Grand Board
The Grand Board consists of nine members, comprising the President of the Boards of Appeal as chairperson, the chairpersons of the Boards and ordinary members selected from a specific list to make up the total of nine members.

The Grand Board was introduced into the Community Trade Mark and Community Design system by Council Regulation 422/2004. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal a Board may refer a case allocated to it to the Grand Board if it believes that this is justified by the legal difficulty or importance of the case or by special circumstances, for example, if Boards of Appeal have issued diverging decisions on a point of law raised by that case. For the same reasons, the Presidium may refer a case to the Grand Board.

Single Member Boards
Since the entry into force of Council Regulation 422/2004 the Board may decide on the composition of only one member, who has to be legally qualified. The Board to which the case is allocated may,pass cases to a single member where the decision closes the proceedings following an agreement between the parties, fixes the amount of costs, reviews the amount determined by the Registry or only concerns the admissibility of the appeal.

Organisation

The Presidium
The Presidium is responsible for the rules and organisation of the Boards of Appeal, including the allocation of members to the specific Boards and the specification of the rules for allocation of cases to the Boards. It is composed of the President of the Boards of Appeal, who chairs it, as well as the chairpersons of the Boards and, at present, three Board members elected for each calendar year by all the members of the Boards (excluding the President and the chairpersons of the Boards of Appeal).