Recently published decisions
All board of appeal decisions released for publication in the last three months are shown in the list below (newest first). The website checks for new decisions daily and updates the list accordingly. For full lists per year, please access the subpages.
February 2024
The question of whether a material or an object is a "
substance or composition
" in the sense of Articles 53(c) and 54(4)or (5) EPC should be decided, in the first place, on the basis of the claimed material or object as such. If this analysis leads to the conclusion that indeed a substance or composition is present, this requirement of Article 54(4) or (5) EPC is fulfilled. No additional restrictions relating to its mode of action are derivable from the EPC (reasoning, point 12) .
Substance or composition - yes
Novelty - (yes)
Amendment to case - no reasons for filing new experimental evidence in appeal proceedings
Amendment to case - reasons for submitting new claims (auxiliary requests 2 to 4) in appeal proceedings
Novelty (main request and auxiliary requests 1 to 2)
Novelty - (no) (auxiliary request 3)
Novelty - (yes)
Amendment to case - reasons for submitting amendment in appeal proceedings (yes)
Amendment to case - amendment admitted (yes)
Sufficiency of disclosure - undue burden (yes)
Sufficiency of disclosure - enabling disclosure (no)
Late-filed request - should have been submitted in first-instance proceedings (yes)
Late-filed request - circumstances of appeal case justify admittance (no)
Inventive step - (no: all requests)
Late-filed evidence - circumstances of appeal case justify admittance (yes)
The deletion of claims is not excluded from the scope of the term "amendment" in Article 13 RPBA 2020.
The impact of a particular change to the appeal case on procedural economy is not a criterion for deciding whether that change is an "amendment" within the meaning of Article 13 RPBA 2020. Rather, the impact on procedural economy is a criterion when a board, at the next step of the assessment, exercises its discretion to decide whether a change that has already been qualified as an "amendment" is to be taken into account.
See reasons 7.
Inventive step - (no)
Inventive step - main request, and auxiliary requests 1, 3 to 12, 14
Exclusion from patentability - method for performing mental acts (yes) - auxiliary request 13
Amendment after summons - exceptional circumstances (no)
Amendment after summons - auxiliary requests 6.2, 8.2 and 12.2
Late-filed request - auxiliary requests 2 and 15
Late-filed request - admitted (no)
Admission of documents (No)
Basis in the parent application (No)
Claims - clarity after amendment (yes)
Amendments - allowable (yes)
Remittal - (yes)
Erfinderische Tätigkeit - Hauptantrag und Hilfsanträge 1 bis 4 (nein)
Spät eingereichte Beweismittel - berücksichtigt (nein)