r) Filing of translations 

Whether a board admitted a translation filed at this late stage of proceedings depended on the circumstances of the case.

In T 1720/20 the board admitted D14 (certified translation of the bibliographic data of the Chinese priority document of the patent in suit), filed by the appellant (patent proprietor) with its statement of grounds of appeal. D16 (another certified translation of the bibliographic data of the priority document), filed by the respondent (opponent) in reply to the communication under Art. 15(1) RPBA, was also admitted. In view of the considerable cost of a certified translation, the board considered it unreasonable that in such circumstances the respondent should have filed the certified translation as a precautionary measure in response to the statement of grounds of appeal.

In T 1795/19, however, the board could not see any cogent reasons for exceptional circumstances. In particular, it saw no reason why the opponent had waited until the oral proceedings to submit an improved translation. In the board's view, the opponent had to have known from the outset that the previous machine translation was in places difficult or even impossible to understand. The board also rejected any analogy with Art. 14(2) EPC.