5.12.8 No absolute right to a "last chance"

Some decisions considered whether a patentee should always be given a "last chance" to save its patent. It has been thoroughly discussed and clearly established by the boards of appeal that there is no absolute right for a patentee to such a "last chance" request. On the contrary, the admissibility of a late-filed request is always a matter for the board's discretion (T 837/07). Moreover, as stated inter alia in decision T 446/00, the concept of a "last chance" suggests one last chance at the end of the proceedings and not multiple "last chances" on numerous occasions during the course of the appeal (see also T 1067/10, in which the appellant had already had ample opportunity earlier in the proceedings). In some decisions, however, the boards considered that patent proprietors should normally be given an opportunity to limit their claims even as late as at the oral proceedings (see e.g. T 577/97, T 24/99, T 707/08, T 1165/13, T 1624/16).