In September 2025, the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA), the highest judicial authority of the European Patent Office (EPO), issued its decision in G 2/24. The EBA addressed a procedural question: if a third party (an “intervener”) joins an ongoing appeal, can that party keep the case alive if all the original appellants withdraw? The EBA’s answer was a no. In other words, interveners play only a supporting role in appeal proceedings. They may join an existing appeal, but they cannot take over once the main participants have left the stage.
The post Interveners Left Out in the Cold: EPO’s G 2/24 Tightens Rules for Late Parties to Patent Challenges appeared first on IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law.

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