08/06/2026
The EPO Board of Appeal has released its 2025 annual report, highlighting its activity over the past year, and setting out its progress against goals and initiatives. Some key findings for patent applicants are as follows.
Success Rates and Other Data
The statistics illustrate allowance rates for both ex-parte and inter-parte proceedings at the Appeal Board.
The success rate for ex-parte appeals (that are successful in whole or in part) is around 40%, while for inter-partes appeals it is about 60%. Despite some year-on-year fluctuations, the success rate has not changed significantly over the past 5 years.
Additionally, around 70% of Appeals and Oral Proceedings continue to be held in English, about the same percentage as the language of proceedings in UPC actions. The EPO holds about 60% of Appeal Oral Proceedings by video conference compared to in-person hearings.
Reduction of Backlog and Time to a Final Decision
The number of active pending cases at the EPO has fallen from 8280 at the end of 2020 to just 2220 cases at the end of 2025. The EPO has made significant progress to reduce the backlog of pending cases and reduce the time to a final decision.
Statistics now show that the number of pending appeal cases older than 24 months has dropped to just 10.5% (down from 21.5% a year ago). Most appeal cases are therefore dealt with in less than two years.
Fewer appeals appear to have been filed in recent years, with the number of new appeal cases received was 1537 in 2025 compared with 2332 in 2021.
Interaction with the UPC
The EPO Appeal Board has accelerated 39 appeal cases on the request of the parties, where parallel proceedings have been taking place at the UPC.
Arriving at a final decision in a timely fashion has been a priority for the EPO, in order to provide legal certainty and to support litigation at the Unified Patent Certainty. By way of contrast, decisions at the UPC currently take somewhere between 13 and 15 months to issue.
The Appeal Boards continue to work with the UPC to share information and understanding. In 2025, there were two meetings between the delegations of the UPC Court of Appeal, and the President of the Board of Appeal to discuss training and organisational issues.
Other Areas of Interest
There are 160 technical staff at the EPO Board of Appeal, made up of 23 chairpersons, 25 legally qualified members, and 112 technically qualified members. Women and men are represented virtually equally in the legally qualified member role. However, the percentage of female examiners drops to around 20% for the chairperson and technically qualified roles.
The EPO continue to review ways in which AI may be used to support the activities of the Appeal Board, particularly the use of AI tools to prepare minutes of the proceedings. This initiative is detailed in the President’s decision of April 2025.
This content is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
The Annual Reports of the Appeal Board are available here: https://www.epo.org/en/case-law-appeals/annual-reports
