European Patent Office

T 0736/95 (Fresh ground of opposition/AMGEN INC.) du 09.10.2000

Identifiant européen de la jurisprudence
ECLI:EP:BA:2000:T073695.20001009
Date de la décision
9 octobre 2000
Numéro de l'affaire
T 0736/95
Requête en révision de
-
Numéro de la demande
83901979.1
Classe de la CIB
C07K 13/00
Langue de la procédure
Anglais
Distribution
Publiées au Journal officiel de l'OEB (A)
Téléchargement
Décision en anglais
Autres décisions pour cet affaire
-
Résumés pour cette décision
-
Titre de la demande
(Met-1,des-Cys1,des-Tyr2,des-Cys3) interféron gamma humain et séquence d'ADN qui le code
Nom du demandeur
AMGEN INC.
Nom de l'opposant
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH
Chambre
3.3.04
Sommaire

From the Enlarged Board of Appeal case law, decisions G 10/91 and G 1/95 in particular, and the Guidelines for the examination in the EPO follows that the aim of the patent prosecution to avoid invalid patents comes to the foreground as far as proceedings before the first instance are concerned. By adding that the Enlarged Board of Appeal did not see any reason to change the practice of the first instance, it indicated that the first instance at least needs to examine whether a fresh ground is relevant. Therefore, before declaring it inadmissible, the opposition division should have examined under Article 114(1) EPC whether the ground raised under Article 100(c) EPC could prejudice the maintenance of the patent.

Mots-clés
Admissibility of fresh ground of opposition - relevance
Obligation of opposition division to examine fresh ground of opposition for relevance
Remittal to first instance for further prosecution - yes
Referral to Enlarged Board of Appeal - no
Exergue
-

ORDER

For these reasons it is decided that:

1. The decision under appeal is set aside.

2. The case is remitted to the first instance for further prosecution.