BOARDS OF APPEAL
Information from the Enlarged Board of Appeal
Communication from the Enlarged Board of Appeal concerning case G 4/08
In accordance with Article 112(1)(a) EPC, Legal Board of Appeal 3.1.01 referred the following points of law to the Enlarged Board of Appeal with interlocutory decision of 8 December 2008 in case J 8/07:
1. If an international patent application has been filed and published under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in an official language of the European Patent Office (EPO), can the applicant, on entry into the regional phase before the EPO, file a translation of the application into one of the other EPO official languages with the effect that the language of this translation must then be considered as language of the proceedings to be used in all proceedings before the EPO?
2. If the answer to that question is no, can EPO departments use, in written proceedings on a European patent application (or an international application in the regional phase), an EPO official language other than the language of proceedings used for the application?
3. If the answer to question 2 is yes, what are the criteria to be applied in determining the official language to be used? In particular, must EPO departments accede to such a request from a party or parties?
The text of the referral in the French language is available on the Website of the European Patent Office under www.epo.org/patents/appeals/eba-decisions/referrals/pending.html
The Enlarged Board of Appeal considering the referral will be composed as follows: P. Messerli (Chairman), M. - B. Tardo-Dino, P. Alting van Geusau, U. Kinkeldey, S. Perryman, B. Schachenmann, J. - P. Seitz.
Third parties are hereby given the opportunity to file written statements in accordance with Article 10 of the Rules of Procedure of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (OJ EPO 2007, 303 ff) in one of the official languages of the EPO (English, French and German).
To ensure that any such statements can be given due consideration they should be filed together with any new cited documents by the end of May 2009 with the Registry of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, quoting case number G 4/08.