2.2.1 Departments

The boards can hear appeals only against the decisions taken by other EPO departments (J 12/85, OJ 1986, 155). There is thus no right of recourse to the boards of appeal in respect of extensions of patent applications and patents to the extension states. Instead, it is the respective national jurisdiction which is responsible (J 14/00, OJ 2002, 432; J 19/00, J 9/04, J 2/05, J 4/05, J 22/10 and J 9/11). The board in T 506/08 considered that it was not competent to hear a request for a (partial) refund of the international search fee where no search had been performed.