i) New request – repeated attempts to meet EPC requirements

In T 864/20 the board observed with respect to the new main request filed with the statement of grounds of appeal, that there could not be an indefinite right to have newly amended claims admitted into the proceedings whenever the examining division (or the board of appeal) raised an objection under Art. 123(2) EPC. An applicant had the burden to consider carefully whether the amended claims it intended to file had a basis in the application as filed, in particular when the amendments were made in response to an earlier objection under Art. 123(2) EPC. Hence, the board considered that the main request, being a repeated attempt to bring the claims in conformity with Art. 123(2) EPC, could have been filed in the first-instance proceedings in response to one of the earlier objections under Art. 123(2) EPC.