Good news for brand owners – the EUIPO will now offer expedited proceedings whereby the Boards of Appeal will treat ‘exceptionally urgent’ appeal cases with priority. Of course, requests for such priority treatment (i.e. being heard out of chronological order) will not be granted lightly. The EUIPO has given only one example of the circumstances which may justify a request for expedited appeal proceedings, this being “where parallel infringement proceedings have been suspended pending the outcome of the appeal, giving rise to a serious risk of damage if the appeal is not expedited”, but this is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Speed read on formalities: • There will be no additional fee; • Detailed reasoning must be submitted in a separate document to explain why the request is warranted; • Documentary evidence must also be required to support the request; • Parties will be limited to one set of submissions each during proceedings; • Statutory time limits for responses will be unaffected. Any development that improves the speed and efficiency of administrative proceedings to assist the resolution of disputes for brand owners is a positive step forward and we welcome the recognition of this by the EUIPO.
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