4.10.4 Reinforcement of arguments

Filing with the statement setting out the grounds of appeal new documents reinforcing the line of attack already taken before the department of first instance had to be considered as the normal behaviour of a losing party and did not constitute an abuse of procedure (T 113/96, T 1034/01, T 1177/04, T 1267/05).

In T 875/06 the board found that the additional evidence D14 and D15 did not change the appellant's case but simply backed up the arguments made previously because these documents were more relevant with regard to the cited aspects of the invention than the documents already entered into the proceedings. Since the consideration of D14 and D15 did not significantly alter the legal framework and facts of the case in respect of the first-instance proceedings, the board admitted these documents into the proceedings under Art. 13(1) RPBA 2007. In T 113/96 and T 426/97, involving similar cases, the boards admitted new prior-art documents.