Headnotes and Catchwords of EPO Board of Appeal Decisions

Headnotes and Catchwords of EPO Board of Appeal Decisions

Extracted from a bulk dataset released by the European Patent Office

✅ 5,827 headnotes and catchwords available in three languages: 2,993 in English, 1,119 in French, and 1,715 in German

✅ Includes headnotes from G-, J-, T-, D-, W-, and R-decisions 

✅ Coverage: Decisions from 1979 onwards

✅ #OpenSource #OpenAccess – freely available for all

✅ Available in multiple formats: CSV, XLSX, DOCX, TXT, and MD

Source:

14.6 EPO Boards of Appeal decisions - BoA decisions September 2026; https://publication-bdds.apps.epo.org/raw-data/products/public/product/21 (available as a bulk dataset for direct download)

GitHub: https://github.com/xi2pi/epo_decisions

⚠️ Note on the counting method (as of this version, September 2026):

As of this version, the statistics are calculated differently than in earlier versions. Previously, entries with identical headnote/catchword text were automatically removed as duplicates. This method turned out to be buggy: It could incorrectly treat substantively different decisions as duplicates (e.g. when two decisions issued in the same consolidated proceedings share the same operative text, as with G 2/07 and G 1/08), and its result depended on incidental differences between raw-data exports rather than on the actual content.

As of now:
- The raw data (CSV/TXT/MD/DOCX) contains all entries unchanged, including multiple publication-status versions of the same decision (U=unpublished / X=published / P=translated and published).
- The statistical overview below counts every entry as-is, including these publication-status duplicates. 

Earlier versions of this dataset are not directly comparable to the current statistics.

Statistical Overview of Decision Types and Languages (raw counts, all database entries; figures indicate the number of headnotes/catchwords):

Structure of references: D YY NNNN L T S 

  Update based on version 4
  - adapted to September 2026 release
  - removed the faulty text-based duplicate removal (see note above)
  - statistics section rewritten (see note above)