European Court of First Instance design appeals

There are now 125 design decisions of the OHIM Boards of Appeal reported on OHIM's website. An appeal lies to the General Court (as the Court of First Instance is now known after the Lisbon Treaty). Thus far, for designs, however, only 7 of 125 appear to have been appealed - a remarkably low figure (even allowing for some delay in listing appeals on the OHIM site). What is going on? Are parties happy that OHIM has got it right, is CFI procedure intimidating and expensive, or are designs simply not worth the money and the wait?

Here are the "magnificent seven" design appeals listed by OHIM so far:

Appeal Nº: R1323/2008-3 Date: 14/10/09
Application Nº: 4885
RCD: Ornamentation
Language: ES
CFI: T-0513/09

Appeal Nº: R1411/2007-3 Date: 07/07/08
Application Nº:
RCD: (flacons)
Language: FR
CFI: T-0450/08

Appeal Nº: R1437/2006-3 Date: 11/02/08
Application Nº:
RCD: communications equipment
Language: EN
CFI: T-0153/08

Appeal Nº: R1352/2006-3 Date: 31/01/08
Application Nº:
RCD: instruments for writing
Language: EN
CFI: T-0148/08

Appeal Nº: R1337/2006-3 Date: 08/10/07
Application Nº:
RCD: Internal-combustion engine
Language: EN
CFI: T-0010/08

Appeal Nº: R1380/2006-3 Date: 08/10/07
Application Nº:
RCD: Internal-combustion engine
Language: EN
CFI: T-0011/08

Appeal Nº: R1001/2005-3 Date: 27/10/06
Application Nº: 74463-0001
RCD: metal rappers
Language: EN
CFI: T-0009/07

What should we expect of these? CFI statistics show that IP cases (OHIM appeals) now make up a third of its workload. The Court has become pretty acclimatised to trade mark cases, and pursues a similar line to OHIM, so that the reversal rate is low - 12% in 2008. Perhaps low expectations are the real reason for the low design appeal rate.