G 1/14 Inadmissible referral (late appeal - deemed not filed or inadmissible)
In G 1/14 the Enlarged Board of Appeal (very exceptionally) decided that the referral was inadmissible.
The board in T 1553/13 (dealt with in G 1/14) and another board in T 2017/12 (dealt with in G 2/14) referred the question (summary): "Where a notice of appeal is filed and/or the appeal fee paid after expiry of the time limit of Article 108 EPC, first sentence, is this appeal inadmissible or deemed not to have been filed?"
The case G 2/14 was closed as a consequence of the case being deemed withdrawn caused by non-payment of a renewal fee.
In T 1553/13 the Board concluded that the notice of appeal was filed too late and the appeal fee was paid too late. The decision to refuse the patent application was handed over by the EPO to the postal service UPS on 25 April 2013. The shipment was received at the office of the representative on the next day 26 April 2013 by a person named "Weber" according to the "Tracking Information"of UPS. On 7 May 2013 the representative signed the acknowledgment of receipt (EPA Form 2936) and sent it back to the EPO via fax on 8 May 2013. The notice of appeal was filed on 8 July 2013 (Monday) and the appeal fee paid on the same day. The representative held that R.126(2) did not apply and that the time limit was triggered by the actual receipt. The Board held that R.126(1) and (2) did apply and that the appeal was filed after the 10 days of R.126(2). The Board referred then the issue of whether the appeal should be seen as ‘not filed’ or as ‘inadmissible’.
In the proceedings before the Enlarged Board, an ‘amicus curae’ letter pointed out that the notification of the decision underlying the appeal was not notified as prescribed in R.126(1) valid at that moment. UPS was not a post service and the tracking information was no advice of delivery. R.126(1) was amended entering into force at 1 April 2015 to allow the EPO to use UPS. As a consequence, notification took place at the moment the representative was aware (7 May). The appeal was filed in time (using the automatic extension of the weekend).
The Enlarged Board fully agrees. Thus, the referring Board of appeal erred and the appeal was correctly filed. As a consequence, the necessity for answering the referred question is gone [Art.112(1)(a) implies that a decision must be required].
The Enlarged wanted to emphasize the ‘necessity criterion’ and came up with the following headnotes:
1. Befasst eine Beschwerdekammer die Große Beschwerdekammer mit einer Vorlagefrage nach Artikel 112 (1) a) EPU, so obliegt es vorrangig der vorlegenden Beschwerdekammer, in der Vorlageentscheidung darzulegen, dass und warum sie eine Entscheidung der Großen Beschwerdekammer über die Vorlagefrage für erforderlich zur Entscheidung in dem vor ihr anhängigen Beschwerdeverfahren erachtet. Dies ergibt sich auch aus Artikel 22 (2) Satz 2 VOBK, wonach die vorlegende Beschwerdekammer in der Vorlageentscheidung den Zusammenhang der vorgelegten Fragen darzulegen hat.
2. In jedem Fall hat die Große Beschwerdekammer zu prüfen, ob eine Vorlage die Voraussetzungen von Artikel 112 (1) a) EPÜ (einschließlich des Erforderlichkeitskriteriums) erfüllt und damit zulässig ist.
3. Beruht die Vorlage auf einer offensichtlich falschen Anwendung einer Rechtsvorschrift, mit der Folge, dass bei richtiger Rechtsanwendung dieser Vorschrift eine Beantwortung der Vorlagefrage durch die Große Beschwerdekammer nicht mehr als erforderlich für die Entscheidung im Beschwerdeverfahren erscheint, ist sie allerdings als unzulässig zu werten.