German Patent Attorneys forced to go to Holland

A recent decision (T 1012/03) by the Technical Board of Appeal at the European Patent Office may upset some Munich-based patent attorneys by insisting that summoning them to oral proceedings in the EPO's branch at the Hague, rather than at its seat in Munich, is not objectionable under the European Patent Convention.

Right: some helpful information for any lost German patent attorneys.

The IPKat is firmly UK-based and therefore does not care whether he is summoned to Holland or Germany, both being far away places of which he knows little. He is, however, faintly amused by this decision, which runs to 44 pages and is full of detailed semantic arguments, including musings on what is meant by the word "seat" and other erudite legal matters. He is also pleased to see that the EPO is now spreading its workload more evenly across the member states of the convention and looks forward to the day when a branch office is opened in (say) Nottingham.

Things to do in Munich here. Things to see in the Hague here.