T 0835/00 of 07.11.2002
- European Case Law Identifier
- ECLI:EP:BA:2002:T083500.20021107
- Date of decision
- 7 November 2002
- Case number
- T 0835/00
- Petition for review of
- -
- Application number
- 94301107.2
- IPC class
- C08J 9/18
- Language of proceedings
- English
- Distribution
- Distributed to board chairmen and members (B)
- Download
- Decision in English
- OJ versions
- No OJ links found
- Other decisions for this case
- -
- Abstracts for this decision
- -
- Application title
- Polypropylene resin expanded particles
- Applicant name
- MITSUBISHI CHEMICAL CORPORATION, et al
- Opponent name
- (01) BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Ludwigshafen
(02) JSP Corporation - Board
- 3.3.03
- Headnote
- -
- Relevant legal provisions
- European Patent Convention Art 56 1973
- Keywords
- Inventive step (yes) - determination of closest prior art - breadth of claim
- Catchword
- A fatal defect of the choice, as a starting point for the application of the problem/solution method, of a disclosure in the state of the art from which no relevant technical problem can be formulated without inappropriate hindsight is that, without such hindsight, any attempt to establish a logical chain of considerations which could lead to the claimed invention inevitably gets stuck at the start, for want of a relevant identifiable goal or object. If the relevant problem is not derivable, the measures for its solution are a fortiori not derivable. In other words, the invention is not obvious in the light of such art (cf. Reasons, point 4.4.5).
ORDER
For these reasons it is decided:
1. The decision under appeal is set aside.
2. The case is remitted to the first instance with the order to maintain the patent on the basis of Claims 1 to 4 of the main request filed with the submission dated 22 July 1998 and after any necessary consequential amendment of the description.