Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office

The Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office is a book, published by the European Patent Office (EPO), which summarizes the body of case law on the European Patent Convention (EPC) developed by the Boards of Appeal of the EPO since the EPC entered into force at the end of the 1970s. Its tenth edition was published in 2022.^[1] The book is also known as the "White Book",^[2] and it was reported to be in 2012 the best-selling publication of the EPO.^[3] The White Book is published every three to four years. In the meantime, a special edition of the EPO Official Journal is issued each year summarizing the most recent case law of the boards of appeal.^[4]

Sir Robin Jacob, a former British judge specialized in intellectual property law, considered, in 2011, the book nothing short of "a very very good book (...) a super book", carrying on saying that "[in] fact, it is probably better than any other textbook". He admitted however that some decisions discussed in the White Book were pointing in different directions, but that this was because the case law itself was sometimes pointing in different directions.^[5]

References

^ Josefsson, Carl (11 August 2022). "The tenth edition of the "Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO" is now available online". www.epo.org. Haar: European Patent Office. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
^
See for instance:
- "... the "Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO" – sometimes referred to as the "White Book" – a comprehensive and systematic survey in the three official languages of the EPO of all the case law of the boards of appeal since the very beginning." in EPO Official Journal, Special edition 2/2007, 13th European Patent Judges’ Symposium, Thessaloniki, 12 to 16 September 2006, page 24
- "A word should be said here about I.D.4.5 in the ‘White Book’, ..." in David Rogers, "Patents: Inventive step (alternative formulation of problem) and ‘old’ closest prior art: whether to admit an auxiliary request filed at the end of the oral proceedings", Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (2007) 2(4): 210-211 doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpm021
- EPO Board of Appeal decision T 0968/05 of November 9, 2006, Reasons 4.1
^ Frédéric Bostedt (8–9 November 2012). EPO boards of appeal and key decisions, Keeping up-to-date on the case law of the boards of appeal: the EPO's publications, website, and decisions database (Part 1 of 3). Munich, Germany: European Patent Office. 1:42 to 4:30 minutes in. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
^ Frédéric Bostedt (23–24 March 2011). "Case law of the EPO boards of appeal: a review by internal and external experts (Munich, Germany), Sources of information on developments in EPO case law: the website, the White Book and other legal texts (summary)". European Patent Academy seminar. European Patent Office. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
^ Sir Robin Jacob (23–24 March 2011). Case law of the EPO boards of appeal: a review by internal and external experts, The perception of the role and function of the EPO's BoA by the national judges, Part 2: Specific aspects of EPO practice. Munich, Germany: European Patent Office. 4:45 to 5:40 minutes in. Retrieved August 3, 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}