On 15 November 2022, the EUIPO and the Hellenic Industrial Property Organization (OBI - the Greek IPO) organized an interesting and quite lively seminar to present the work of the EUIPO's Boards of Appeal. The seminar covered not only musings on the case law of the Boards of Appeal, but also presentations of the work on the consistency of its decisions and its ADR functions.

Following opening statements by the OBI's Director General, Mr. Panayotis Kanellopoulos, the President of the Boards of Appeal, Mr. João Negrão, walked attendees through the workings of the Boards of Appeal and its future plans.

Sven Stürmann, Chairperson of the 2nd Board of Appeal, provided an informative update on the BoAs' case law and Janka Budovičová, Project Manager, Boards of Appeal,  presented the efforts undertaken to ensure, to the extent possible this blogger would add, consistency in the decisions of the BoA. Finally, Natalia Kapetanaki, of Boards of Appeal Operations, presented the ADR functions of the BoAs.

This blogger understands that the EUIPO's Boards of Appeal are intent of following a more extrovert route and finds that the exchange of thoughts between the EUIPO's institutions and organs with its users, particularly the IP professionals, can only be a good thing.