Haar sees itself as a cosmopolitan municipality on the outskirts of Munich and on the streets you meet people with briefcases who speak perfect English and French. Because the community has been a top address for lawyers from all over Europe for three years. Since 2017, the municipality with a population of 20,000 has been the location of the highest jurisdiction of the European Patent Office (EPO). Haar, so to speak, plays in the European league and, as the seat of an independent EPO authority, is formally on a par with Munich and The Hague. But that could soon be over: The top lawyers should work and speak law in Munich again. There are organizational reasons behind this. But many employees still struggle with hair to this day.
EPO President António Campinos and the President of the Boards of Appeal, Carl Josefsson, who has his office in Haar-Eglfing near the train station, have now announced the expected move in a joint statement. They have jointly submitted the proposal to the member states of the European Patent Organization to relocate the unit back to downtown Munich, it is said. This is justified by the trend towards digitization and teleworking, which means that EPO office buildings can be used more efficiently.
EPO President Campinos holds out the prospect of moving to the Pschorrhöfe at Hackerbrücke. It is said that these are easy to reach for international visitors near the main train station. Campinos also says, “The more central location within Munich would be very much appreciated” and thus also describes the mood among the workforce. Because when it became known in 2017 that the highly endowed lawyers were to move to a suburb of Munich, the uproar was great. Many felt downright punished. That is now being corrected again. And after the departure of the pharmaceutical company MSD, hair continues to lose its international flair.
In the corridors of the Boards of Appeal in the “Eight in One” office complex, the past three years have been dealt with like patent cases at an international court of law. The patent organization includes even more countries than the European Union. In addition to the EU countries, Great Britain is there, but also North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. The structure behind the EPO and the Boards of Appeal counts a total of 38 member states, whose representatives have yet to approve the move to Munich in March 2022. With their pioneering case law, the Boards of Appeal in particular had an impact on the patent system throughout the world, as their President Josefsson once said.
Lawyers discussed the “hair-splitting” question of whether the municipality belongs in a row with Munich and The Hague as a location
But this self-image was also ballast for Haar. Not only did many officials consider the relocation from the headquarters at the Deutsches Museum in Munich to Haar a punishment; the place of jurisdiction in Haar almost became a legal own goal for the patent office. In fact, in 2019, clever lawyers tried to overturn a decision of the boards of appeal in a procedure involving a controversial technical detail function of a mobile communications standard by contesting the place of jurisdiction in Haar. Because unlike Munich and The Hague, Haar is not listed as an EPO location in Article 6 of the European Patent Convention, they argued. Oral negotiations in Haar are therefore not permitted. The Board of Appeal’s ability to act was even temporarily questioned because of hair.
This dispute, which a Hamburg patent attorney’s office documented meticulously, not least because of the internal quarrels in the patent office, under the heading “Splitting hairs”, went too far for the EPO lawyers. The Enlarged Board of Appeal, which is also based in Haar, found as the last instance in July 2019 that the indication “Munich” did not imply any restriction to the city limits. Quite a compliment for the district of Munich, which at least in formal legal terms meets the highest European standards. The reason for the decision was that “Munich” for the “European Patent Office and its organs also includes properties in the greater Munich area, at least in the Munich district”.
In Haar they are probably not only sad about the end of the trip to Europe. This brought a certain cosmopolitanism to the community, but the so urgently needed business tax revenue did not bring the authority with its courtrooms, which of course occupied large and prominently located office space near the train station. Mayor Andreas Bukowski (CSU) has just recently complained that there are hardly any realistic prospects for high-quality free commercial space in Haar. In addition to the MSD building, a new tenant will soon be sought at the former EPO headquarters.