The Board of Appeal is an independent pre-trial body that resolves appeals, in the cases provided by law, against decisions of the Patent Office, registration actions, refusals or delays in performing registration actions, as well as disputes between third parties and applicants or proprietors based on a third party’s notice of opposition, a request for the declaration of nullity or extinguishment of the exclusive right of the proprietor of a trade mark, a request for the revocation of legal protection granted to an industrial property object, or another request.
The board was established in 1992, but its tasks, organisation, composition, procedures and location have been reorganised several times. As of 2019, the board has been located at the Patent Office, but is operating independently. In 2024, the board operated with two permanent members. Tanel Kalmet was reappointed as the Chairman of the Board for the next term, while Sulev Sulsenberg continued as the Vice-Chairman. In the event of settlement of a dispute by a collegial decision, one or two additional members from the experts in the field are included in the composition of the board. The list of additional members has been approved by the Minister of Justice from among the Patent Office officials, patent attorneys and other experts in the field. The list includes 38 additional members, including 20 from the field of trade marks. Marit Soomets has been serving as the Secretary of the Board since 2019.
The website of the Board of Appeals and its subpages contain information on the objects and nature of the proceedings, along with references to the corresponding entries in the trade mark database of the Patent Office. In cases provided for by law, the decisions of the board are published on the website. The collegial decisions of the previous composition of the board can be found on a separate subpage.
The requests and appeals filed to the board in 2024, as well as the collegial and exclusive decisions taken were predominantly concerned with trade marks. However, two patent appeals were also filed, and the Board made one decision on a patent appeal and closed the proceedings concerning one patent request. In total, three appeals were filed with the board over the year (2020: 7; 2021: 3; 2022: 8; 2023: 3) and 54 request (2020: 94; 2021: 86; 2022: 82; 2023: 64). The majority of the requests filed (47) were requests for contesting the registration of a trade mark, while fewer requests (7) concerned the declaration of nullity of the exclusive right to a trade mark. No requests were filed for the declaration of termination of the exclusive right. One appeal and 42 requests concern Estonian national trade marks, and 12 requests concern international trade marks. In 35 cases, the request was based on an earlier European Union trade mark. By month, the highest number of requests was received in March (9) and the lowest (1) in January and October. Five requests and one appeal were filed without using the services of a patent attorney.
In its substantive decision, the Commission rejects the appeal or request or grant it in full or in part. In 2024, the Board made 49 collegial decisions with two or three members, including with regard to three requests in one case. Three disputes processed by the Board are known to be still ongoing in court and have therefore not entered into force. The Board, acting collegially, fully granted 31 requests and rejected 13 requests; 3 requests were granted partially. In 31 cases, the request was based on a European Union trade mark. The board granted one patent appeal and dismissed two trade mark appeals. Of the decisions concerning trade marks, 31 were concerned with national trade marks and 19 with international trade marks. 18 decisions were taken in an accelerated procedure (2021: 18; 2022: 25; 2023:25), ie in a situation where the applicant or proprietor had not had not indicated their intention to oppose the request. 31 proceedings were closed by an exclusive decision in 2024 (2023: 23); the request was granted, and in one case it was dismissed. Nine unilateral requests were withdrawn before the end of the conciliation period (2022: 17; 2023: 7).
As a rule, disputes are resolved in written proceedings and a session is arranged only in exceptional cases. No sessions were held in 2024.
