4.2.2 Premier niveau de l'approche convergente : modifications des moyens – article 12(4) RPCR

In T 989/23 auxiliary request 17, filed with the statement of grounds of appeal, had first been filed in the opposition proceedings on the final date set under R. 116 EPC. The opposition division had decided that this auxiliary request was not open for examination as to its admissibility since it had been filed within the set time limit. Auxiliary request 17 was not considered by the opposition division since a higher-ranking auxiliary request was found allowable. The appellant-opponent requested that auxiliary request 17 not be admitted into the appeal proceedings, arguing that the division had misunderstood its discretionary powers.

In view of the line of case law holding that submissions admitted by the opposition division could not be excluded from consideration on appeal (e.g. T 487/16, T 1768/17, T 617/16, T 26/13, T 989/23, T 1568/12, T 2603/18, T 3201/19) the board first addressed the extent of its power of review. It explained that like an opposition division's decision to disregard late-filed submissions, a decision to admit such submissions into the opposition proceedings was a discretionary procedural decision which formed part of the opposition division's final decision on the merits of an opposition. A decision to admit late-filed submissions adversely affected the party contesting their admittance (in view of a possible adverse decision on appeal based on the admitted submissions, T 1549/07). Therefore, a board had the power to review an opposition division's procedural decision to take into consideration submissions filed late in opposition proceedings. Otherwise, the parties' right to a judicial review of an essential part of the opposition division's decision would be denied. Moreover, on appeal, a board would be compelled to accept a legal and factual framework, even if it is based on an erroneous exercise of discretion. As a consequence, requests, facts or evidence that had been admitted into opposition proceedings could be disregarded on appeal if the opposition division's decision suffered from an error in the use of discretion (T 1209/05, T 1652/08, T 1852/11, T 2197/11, T 572/14, T 341/15, T 326/22, T 776/17). The board thus had the power and duty to review the opposition division's decision to admit auxiliary request 17 into the opposition proceedings.

The board held that the filing of requests for amendment of the patent was governed by Art. 123(1) EPC, which gave the opposition division the discretionary power not to admit new requests for amendment (e.g. T 755/96, OJ 2000, 174; T 980/08, T 1178/08, T 966/17, R 6/19, T 256/19, R 11/20). The exercise of this discretion had to take account of the following: In inter-partes proceedings, each party had to be given equal opportunity to present their case and a fair chance to respond to new matter raised by the other party or parties or by the opposition division. Both the opposition division and the parties had to observe the principle of good faith (T 669/90, OJ 1992, 739; T 201/92). To expedite the proceedings and implement the principle of fairness towards the other party or parties, each party had to submit all facts, evidence, arguments and requests for amendments relevant to their case as early and completely as possible (T 326/87, OJ 1992, 522; T 430/89; T 951/91, OJ 1995, 202). This case law had been developed mainly in the context of Art. 114(2) EPC, pertaining to facts and evidence. Nevertheless, in view of the principles set out above, the rationale of this case law also applied to a patent proprietor's requests for amendment of the patent (e.g. T 582/08). Whether amended sets of claims should be considered in opposition proceedings or not did not merely depend on their filing within the time limit under R. 116 EPC, but also on the specific circumstances of the case (see also T 364/20). Consequently, the opposition division erred in denying that it had discretionary power to disregard auxiliary request 17. As a consequence, this procedural decision did not establish that auxiliary request 17 was "admissibly raised" in opposition proceedings.

The board agreed with the opponent that the filing of additional sets of amended claims (including auxiliary request 17) on 23 January 2023 was not a diligent and appropriate reaction to the opponent's submissions filed on 14 April 2022 and reiterated on 2 September 2022, or to the opposition division's communication of 30 May 2022. Since part of the defences submitted by the proprietor was not able to overcome the board’s conclusions on lack of inventive step and a later filed part raised new issues, the board did not admit auxiliary request 17 into the appeal proceedings.

In T 1178/23 auxiliary request 4 filed with the reply to the statement of grounds of appeal had the same wording as auxiliary request 2 in opposition proceedings, filed as auxiliary request 1 on the final date set by the opposition division under R. 116 EPC and renamed when a new auxiliary request 1 was filed at the oral proceedings. The decision under appeal was not based on auxiliary request 2, as the opposition division had held auxiliary request 1 to be allowable.

The board held that for the assessment of the condition under Art. 12(4), first sentence, RPBA ("admissibly raised"), the decisive question is whether the first-instance department would have admitted the request had a discretionary decision on admittance been required (T 364/20; see also T 2395/22 and T 246/22). In the board's view, the explicit use of the past tense ("was admissibly raised") and the reference to the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal implied that the perspective of the first-instance department was addressed. In other words, it needed to be determined how the first-instance department would have proceeded in reliance on the provisions and practice that applied at the time. This view was supported by the consideration that, without the first-instance perspective, a decision on the "admissibly raised" condition might lead to a different assessment of the admittance of a request that was filed but not decided on in first-instance proceedings compared to another, higher-ranking request that was filed under the same circumstances but was admitted and held allowable by the first-instance department. Setting minimum requirements post factum in appeal for determining whether a request was admissibly raised before the opposition division (T 364/20, T 1800/20, T 309/21, T 246/22, T 1749/22) was tantamount to applying different admittance criteria for auxiliary requests filed at the same time and under the same circumstances in first-instance proceedings. Arguably, such an approach would compromise legal certainty. Moreover, replacing the first-instance perspective with what essentially was an exercise of discretion on the part of the board would render the discretionary decision of Art. 12(4), second sentence, RPBA redundant.

The board explained that, to assess whether the first-instance department would have admitted a request, it had to be established whether this department had discretion not to admit the request and, if so, which practice applied at the time when the decision on admittance would have been taken. As a general rule, parties could expect first-instance departments of the EPO to act in accordance with the Guidelines in the version valid at the relevant time (T 446/22, T 731/22, T 823/23). The board addressed the "moving target" argument in T 246/22 by pointing out that the amendments to the Guidelines often reflected developments in the case law of the boards of appeal. They therefore could not constitute an impediment for the board in considering the Guidelines when determining how the opposition division would have proceeded at the relevant time.

In the case in hand, the board concurred with the respondent (patent proprietor) that, at the time of the oral proceedings on 14 March 2023, the opposition division would have considered the March 2023 version of the Guidelines had a discretionary decision on the admittance of that auxiliary request been required. The relevant section E-VI, 2.2.2 of the March 2023 version of the Guidelines included the provision that "amendments submitted before the date set under Rule 116(1) EPC cannot, as a rule, be considered as being late-filed". In view thereof, the board was satisfied that the respondent had demonstrated that auxiliary request 4 at issue was admissibly raised in the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal.

The fact that, according to the minutes of the oral proceedings held before the opposition division, the respondent had renumbered the auxiliary request 1 filed on the final date set under R. 116 EPC at the end of the oral proceedings, implied that this claim request was not withdrawn but maintained in the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal. The board concluded that auxiliary request 4 was not an amendment of the respondent's appeal case but was part of the appeal proceedings (Art. 12(4), first sentence RPBA).

In T 823/23 the board decided on the admittance of a "carry-over objection", i.e. – as explained by the board – an objection which was raised and maintained in the opposition proceedings but which was not decided upon in those proceedings, neither with regard to its admittance nor in substance, due to the allowability of a claim request that ranked higher than the claim request against which the objection had been raised.

The board noted that, in the case in hand, the applicability of G 10/91 to raising the objection at issue in the appeal proceedings could be left open. Restrictions on new submissions pursuant to G 10/91 and a board's discretionary power not to admit late-filed party submissions under Art. 114(2) EPC, Art. 12 and 13 RPBA had to be applied in a cumulative manner (T 1042/18). In the board's view, the objection at issue was not admissibly raised within the meaning of Art. 12(4) RPBA and the board decided not to admit the objection into the appeal proceedings.

The board pointed out that the purpose of the mechanism of Art. 12(4), first sentence, RPBA was to ensure that submissions on which the decision under appeal was not based were (i) neither automatically subject to the board's discretion regarding admittance, (ii) nor automatically part of the appeal proceedings simply because they were raised and maintained in the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal (even though they might not have been admitted into those proceedings had it been necessary to decide on their admittance). Considering the provision's wording, context and purpose, the board held that a submission was admissibly raised in the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal if it would have been admitted into those proceedings had a decision on its admittance been taken. A board first had to assess whether the first-instance department had discretion not to admit a submission. If this was the case, in a second step, the board had to assess how a department of first instance, assuming legally correct and reasonable conduct, would have exercised that discretion.

This required the board to take on the perspective of a department of first instance and use the criteria which this department would have had to apply. The case law of the boards on reviewing the exercise of discretion in examination proceedings (e.g. T 937/09, T 573/12) and opposition proceedings (e.g. T 1930/14, T 84/17) could provide guidance for assessing how a department of first instance would have exercised its discretion. A board could also take account of the Guidelines. In the board's view, this, in principle, was no different from a board taking account of the Guidelines when reviewing the actual exercise of discretion by a department of first instance in the context of Art. 12(6), first sentence, RPBA (see T 435/21, T 1088/20) or Art. 12(6), second sentence, RPBA (see T 1990/20). The board observed that the Guidelines were – as general instructions pursuant to Art. 10(2)(a) EPC – to be taken into account by the departments of first instance. However, as stated in the Guidelines, they did not constitute legal provisions and, for the ultimate authority on the practice in the EPO, it was necessary to refer to the EPC and to its interpretation by the boards of appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal. As only the circumstances of the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal mattered in the assessment of whether a submission was "admissibly raised", the version of the Guidelines in force at the relevant time in those proceedings was pertinent for this assessment (see T 446/22, T 731/22).

In the case in hand, the appellant (then opponent 2) did not raise the objection under Art. 100(b) EPC in the opposition proceedings until after the board had remitted the case to the opposition division, i.e. long after the end of the opposition period and therefore not in due time within the meaning of Art. 114(2) EPC (see T 1776/18). Accordingly, the opposition division had had discretion not to admit this objection. The Guidelines (March 2022 version) stated that in deciding whether to admit grounds for opposition not filed in due time, their relevance to the decision, the state of the procedure and the reasons for the belated submission were to be considered, with particular emphasis on prima facie relevance (see E-VI, 2). This was in line with what was stated in G 10/91 (point 16 of the Reasons). The board concluded that the objection was not admissibly raised in the opposition proceedings. Since the objection still suffered from a lack of prima facie relevance, exercising its discretion under Art. 12(4) RPBA, the board decided not to admit it into the appeal proceedings.

In T 1913/21 auxiliary requests 4 and 5 were filed during the proceedings before the opposition division, but not dealt with because a higher-ranking request was held allowable, and later re-filed with the statement of grounds of appeal. The respondent (patent proprietor) referred to different approaches outlined in the jurisprudence of the boards of appeal with regard to the interpretation of the requirement "admissibly raised and maintained" (inter alia T 364/20, T 1800/20 and T 246/22). The board considered that it was not necessary to go into the details of the different approaches because auxiliary requests 4 and 5 did not meet a common requirement in these decisions, namely that an explanation needed to be given as to why the amendments have been made and how they are intended to overcome the objections raised.

In the board's view, the wording of Art. 12(4) RPBA by reference to "the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal" should be construed in the present case with regard to the opposition proceedings and the criteria applicable to them. This required an assessment of whether the opposition division had discretion not to admit a request, and how that discretion should have been exercised in the circumstances if a decision on admittance had been required. This approach had also been adopted in other decisions (explicitly e.g. in T 364/20, T 2395/22, implicitly in T 446/22, T 731/22). The board considered it inappropriate to apply the criteria in Art. 12(4), third sentence, RPBA, as they were specific to the appeal proceedings and could not have been considered by the patent proprietor at the time of filing the auxiliary requests. For this reason, a reference to the relevant EPC provisions and the Guidelines applicable at the time when the auxiliary requests were filed was appropriate, since they contained the criteria that an opposition division would apply. In addition, the Guidelines reflected the consolidated jurisprudence of the boards of appeal on the criteria for admittance of requests to be applied in opposition proceedings.

The board observed that a principle consolidated in the jurisprudence of the boards of appeal (e.g. T 95/83), adopted in the first instance and consistently reflected in the Guidelines (H-II, 2.7 and E-III, 8.6 – March 2021 version) was that auxiliary requests were not inadmissibly filed simply because they were filed after a period or date specified, but only if in addition they were filed without proper justification. A proper justification was normally considered to be present when the subject of the proceedings had changed, e.g. because of a changed opinion of the opposition division (see also E-III, 8.6), or due to a new document or a new objection submitted/raised by the opponent(s)/the opposition division. Auxiliary requests filed after the period or date specified and absent a proper justification were considered "late" and their admittance was subject to the discretion of the opposition division (Guidelines H-II, 2.7.1 – March 2021 version). In the case in hand, auxiliary request 4 was timely filed (before the date specified under R. 116(2) EPC) and auxiliary request 5 was a legitimate reaction to a change in the subject of the proceedings.

The board then pointed out that the Guidelines contained a substantiation requirement similar to the one in Art. 12(3) and 12(4), fourth sentence, RPBA, namely that an explanation must be provided as to why the amendments have been made and how they are intended to overcome the objections raised (Guidelines H-II, 2.7.1 – March 2021 version). When filing auxiliary requests 4 and 5 in opposition proceedings, as auxiliary requests 14 and 15, the respondent merely submitted that the amendments further limited the scope of the granted claims and therefore further distinguished the claimed subject-matter from the prior art. No reason was submitted as to why the new features introduced in claim 1 would overcome the objections raised. In the board's view, this was sufficient to conclude that auxiliary requests 4 and 5 would not have been admitted in the opposition proceedings.

They were thus not admissibly raised in the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal and did constitute an amendment within the meaning of Art. 12(4) RPBA, the admittance of which was subject to the board's discretion. The board decided not to admit the claim requests into the proceedings, due to the lack of any substantiation of these auxiliary requests in appeal and particularly the fact that it was not straightforward how the amendments could overcome the objections raised.