Introduction to AMBA

On 30 June 1999 AMBA, the Associ­ation of the Members of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Organi­sation (EPO), was founded. Sixty three members partici­pated in the meeting and adopted AMBA's Statutes. 

AMBA was formed with regard to 

-  the function of the Boards of Appeal as the judicial instance of the EPO;

 -  the safeguards of judicial inde­pen­dence enshrined in the Euro­pean Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Free­doms and in the United Nations Decla­ration of Human Rights; and

 -  the Decla­ration adopted by the Ad­mi­nistrative Council of the EPO at its 55th meeting from 13 to 15 December 1994 that the EPO adheres to general legal principles including human rights.

Accordingly, Article 1 of its Statutes defines the purposes of AMBA as:

 -  to monitor issues of relevance for the judicial function of the mem­bers of the Boards of Appeal with a view to safe­guarding their independence;

 -  promoting the members' self-govern­ment as members of a judiciary; and

 -  to gather its members for deli­be­rations on questions of common interest, so that they will be heard in bodies deci­ding or making proposals of relevance for these functions.

 So far, AMBA has in keeping with these aims, inter alia, commented on pro­po­sals for the revision of the EPC and organised the forthcoming panel dis­cus­sion "Euro­pean patent litigation projects and the future status of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO".

 Today AMBA has about ninety mem­bers amounting to about 86% of the current chairmen and members of the Boards of Appeal and Enlarged Board of Appeal.