T 1730/18 12-07-2022
Download and more information:
Power distribution systems
I. The opponent contested the interlocutory decision of the opposition division that account being taken of the amendments made according to the then first auxiliary request, the European Patent EP 2 709 229 and the invention to which it related met the requirements of the EPC.
II. The appellant (opponent) requested that the decision under appeal be set aside and that the patent be revoked.
III. The respondent (patent proprietor) initially contested the appeal.
IV. The Board summoned the parties to oral proceedings, setting out their preliminary observations in a communication pursuant to Article 15(1) RPBA 2020.
V. With a letter dated and filed electronically on 11 July 2022 the respondent (patent proprietor) requested that the patent be revoked.
VI. The Board cancelled the summons to attend oral proceedings.
1. Article 113(2) EPC requires that the EPO may only decide on the text of the European patent "submitted to it, or agreed" by the proprietor.
2. According to established case law (Case Law of the Boards of Appeal, 9th Edition 2019, IV.D.2, third paragraph and the decisions cited there) if the patent proprietor himself requests that the patent be revoked, the decision to revoke the patent is given without substantive examination as to patentability. The examination as to whether the grounds for opposition laid down in Article 100 EPC prejudice the maintenance of the patent becomes impossible since the absence of a valid text of the patent precludes any substantive examination of the alleged impediments to patentability.
For these reasons it is decided that:
1. The decision under appeal is set aside.
2. The patent is revoked.