Rethinking the Position of the Boards of Appeal from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This chapter highlights the legal nature of the Board of Appeal (BoA) of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). It talks about how the BoA remedy should be exhausted by individuals as a pre-condition for the admissibility of judicial review before the EU Courts and the General Court (GC), and in appeal before the Court of Justice (ECJ). It also mentions the hybrid nature of the BoAs as they combine features of an administrative procedure with features of a judicial procedure. The chapter cites Article 58a of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which limits the review of an appeal before the ECJ against a General Court judgment. It gives a comparative research on the two systems of pre-trial procedures in EU Member States and the UK, which are somewhat similar to the BoA mechanism.