BOARDS OF APPEAL
Information from the Enlarged Board of Appeal
Communication from the Enlarged Board of Appeal concerning case G 3/06
By decision T 1040/04 dated 23 March 2006, Technical Board of Appeal 3.2.03 has referred the following point of law to the Enlarged Board of Appeal under Article 112(1)(a) EPC:
(language of the proceedings)
Can a patent which has been granted on a divisional application which did not meet the requirements of Article 76 (1) EPC because at its actual date of filing it extended beyond the content of the earlier application, be amended during opposition proceedings in order to overcome the ground of opposition under Article 100 (c) EPC and thereby fulfil said requirements ?
The text of the referral in the English language is available on the Website of the European Patent Office under
legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t041040ex1.pdf
The case is pending under Ref. No. G 3/061.
1 Having regard to Article 8 of its Rules of Procedure, the Enlarged Board of Appeal has decided to consider the points of law referred to it by Technical Board of Appeal 3.4.02 in case T 39/03 (G 1/05), by Technical Board of Appeal 3.4.03 in case T 1409/05 (G 1/06) and by the Technical Board of Appeal 3.2.03 in case T 1040/04 (G 3/06) in consolidated proceedings.