Tuesday, July 03, 2018 T 1898/14 - change of mind of the proprietor

The opposition division decided to maintain the European patent in amended form and the opponent lodged an appeal requesting revocation of the patent.

The proprietor initially requested dismissal of the appeal. However, upon summons to oral proceedings, the proprietor changed his mind and withdrew its approval of the text of the patent in any form and requested revocation of the patent. While the latter request could not be allowed by the BoA in view of Art. 105a(2) which excludes requests of revocation while appeal opposition proceedings are pending, the former withdrawal is accepted by the BoA in line with established case law (see for example T 73/84).