c) End points which are not part of a range 

In T 1919/11 the subject-matter of claim 1 of the main request related to silver at a concentration of at least 1µM to less than 200µM. In the description, it was stated in two separate consecutive sentences that "When silver is incorporated in the medium, it will be added at a concentration of less than 900 µM, preferably less than 500 µM, and more preferably less than 200 µM" and "When silver is incorporated in the medium, it will be added at a concentration of at least 10 nM, preferably 100 nM, more preferably 1 µM, and typically at 10 µM". The board observed that the situation in the case at issue was not comparable with that in T 1107/06 and dealt with in the settled jurisprudence of the boards of appeal. A general range, which means a lower limit which is unequivocally combined with an upper limit, and a preferred disclosed narrower range – equally consisting of a lower limit which is unequivocally combined with an upper limit – were simply missing. Even a kind of parallel structure in indicating the upper and lower limits (less/at least, preferred or more preferred) implied no unequivocal correlation between a particular upper limit and a particular lower limit because there was no teaching that such an arrangement was intended. Therefore, one of the upper limits mentioned in the first sentence in the description of the parent application as originally filed (as cited above) and one of the lower limits mentioned in the second sentence were arbitrarily combined, which did not represent a direct and unambiguous disclosure.

In T 2029/23 the board distinguished the case in hand from the case underlying T 1919/11, in which the competent board had decided that the amendment combining a lower limit and an upper limit from two separate sentences (or "lists") of upper and lower limits was not allowable because the disclosure in the parent application as filed did not represent a range and such a combination was arbitrary. Instead, as regards the range of 10 to 30 minutes for the setting time in T 2029/23, there was a single sentence, namely claim 4 of the application as filed, that contained a general range (1 hour or less) and only two preferred narrower ranges (30 minutes or less and 10 minutes or less). The lower two values of this range were used to draw up the range in claim 1 of the main request. This amendment in itself did not produce added subject-matter.