Friday, November 02, 2018 T 0918/17 - Copy-paste approach doesn't cut it

The present case concerns an appeal that was deemed inadmissible for failing to identify the reasons why the impugned decision should be set aside. The decision in question was a refusal by the Examining Division on the grounds of extension of subject matter and lack of inventive step. The initial objection raised in the European search opinion was lack of novelty. In response, the applicant filed amended claims and generally addressed the patentability of the amended claims.

The new independent claim was held to contravene Art. 123(2) and Art. 56 EPC. The next response from the applicant focussed solely on arguments as to why the contested amendment to claim 1 was indeed fully supported in the application as filed. The Examining Division was not persuaded and maintained both its objections, after which the applicant requested a decision according to the state of the file and withdrew the request for oral proceedings. The subsequent decision to refuse was appealed.

In the Board's opinion, the filed statement of grounds did not explain why the Examining Division's Art. 56 objection was incorrect. They also highlighted the fact that the majority of the submission on this issue was a mere copy-paste from the initial response to the search opinion, which was more specifically directed to novelty and only generally addressed inventiveness  The Board therefore held that they were unable to decide on the correctness of the objection without first having to make investigations of their own.

The applicant did not respond to the Board's preliminary opinion on admissibility and the appeal was rejected as inadmissible.

Thursday, September 20, 2018 T 1914/12 - Does the Board have discretion as to the admissibility of late arguments based on facts already in the proceedings?

A decision in French, but well worth reading (and well-readable, too). It concerns the question whether the Boards of Appeal, based on Articles 12(2) and 13(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA), have the discretion not to admit arguments submitted late in the proceedings - when the facts (in this case, a prior art document) underlying these arguments have been filed in time. It particularly deals with the legal meaning of the terms "facts" and "arguments", and how "facts, evidence or requests" (Art. 12(4) RPBA) and "amendments (to a party's case)" (Art. 13 RPBA) relate to Art. 114(2) EPC, stipulating that the European Patent Office may disregard "facts or evidence" (but not arguments?) not filed in time.

The present appeal lies from the decision of the Opposition Division to revoke European Patent EP1968779 on the grounds of lack of novelty and inventive step in view of, among others, prior art document D51. Briefly, the patent is concerned with a method for bonding a strip of a flexible sheet to a rigid support involving a step of pressing and heating a polymerizable adhesive applied between the support and the strip.

In its grounds of appeal, the proprietor provided several arguments as to why the subject matter of claim 1 distinguishes itself from the disclosure of D51. In a subsequent written submission - filed after transfer of the patent from the original proprietor to the original opponent - the new proprietor argued that, in addition to the distinguishing features discussed previously, D51 differs from claim 1 by disclosing a thermoplastic rather than a polymerizable adhesive (the latter point having merely been noted in the grounds, but not elaborated on).

In its preliminary opinion preceding Oral Proceedings, the Board expressed its intention not to accept the late argument that the nature of the adhesive used was an additional distinguishing feature.

During Oral Proceedings, the proprietor submitted that the assessment of a late argument must be applied according to a more flexible test than facts, evidence or requests, according to the RPBA interpreted in the light of its travaux préparatoires, in which the explicit inclusion of the term "arguments" had been debated. The proprietor further held that the belated argument is a pure argument concerning the underlying technical reality, namely the nature of the adhesive used. In this case, it is not the facts of the case that have changed, but the position of the parties on the interpretation of a document. In regard of Art. 114 EPC, the expression "in due time" must be interpreted in respect of the right of the parties to a fair trial and the duty of the Board to judge whether a fact corresponds to the technical reality.

In its reasons, the Board concluded that indeed a "fact" can be understood as a factual (or allegedly such) element or a circumstance on which a party bases its claims, whereas an "argument" would mean a proposition that a party bases on one or more facts and that supports the plea ["moyen" in the decision] which the party debates.

The Board further noted that in the "Proposal to amend the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA)" of 2002, leading to the current version of the RPBA, "arguments" had initially been included in the definition of "amendments to a party's case". According to the Board, the deletion of the words "arguments" from the final (current) version seems to express the intention of the Praesidium, after consultation with the Patent Law Committee, to exclude arguments from the discretionary power conferred to the Boards of Appeal.

The Board cited T 1794/12 of 16 January 2018, which relied on point 3.1 of the article by B. Günzel, "The treatment of late submissions in proceedings before the boards of appeal of the European Patent Office" ( OJ EPO, Special Edition 2/2007, page 30):

For one thing, submissions can only be rejected on the grounds of being late if the decision-making body would not have been required to examine them and take them into consideration of its own motion. It is incumbent on every decision-maker and thus also on the boards of appeal to weigh up all the relevant legal and technical arguments in making their decision. Such arguments must therefore, at least when they involve the facts of the case and not new grounds for opposition, be taken into account at all stages of the proceedings, including the appeal stage, and cannot be rejected on the grounds of being late.

As regards previous Board decisions, the present Board is not persuaded by the reasoning behind T 1069/08 and T 1621/09 - followed by many Boards - which rely exclusively on the application of Article 13(1) RPBA from the formulation of Article 12(2) RPBA to recognize the discretion of Boards in (not) admitting late submissions. According to this Board, the interpretation of those decisions ignores the fact that Article 114(2) EPC does not justify such discretion, as previous case law has repeatedly stated. According to the Board, the EPC, and in particular its Article 114 - at least in its English version - raises a difference in the treatment of facts and arguments. In particular, Article 114(2) EPC provides for a discretionary power with regard to the facts invoked belatedly, and not for late arguments based on facts already in the proceedings. Even when drafting the RPBA, the legislator seems to have intended to maintain this distinction, as is apparent from the preparatory work on Article 13 RPBA. According to this board, the RPBA, also in view of Art. 23 thereof, although it can specify and interpret the provisions of the EPC, it cannot confer on the Boards of appeal powers which the EPC does not give them.

Thus, departing from T 1621/09, the Board found that the Boards of Appeal do not have a discretion as to the (non)admissibility of late arguments based on facts already in the proceedings.

Consequently, the proprietor's assertion concerning the nature of the adhesive used, first presented in its letter of 15 October 2015, constitutes a new argument in support of the plea which it defends, namely: that the subject matter of claim 1 is novel compared to document D51. Taking into account of this argument necessarily leads to the consideration of the applicant's argumentation concerning the inventive step of the subject-matter of claim 1. The Board comes to the conclusion that it has no discretion as to the (non)admission of these arguments. It follows that the additional difference must be taken into consideration.

With this new distinctive feature, a new line of argument has been submitted for consideration of inventive step. In view of the fact that this distinctive new characteristic may have an influence on the choice of the closest prior art, a referral of the case in the first instance is considered justified by the Board.

Friday, March 23, 2018 T 1719/13 - Live with your untidiness

In this opposition appeal, both the proprietor and the opponent appealed the decision of the Opposition Division to maintain the patent in amended form. Besides the main request of maintaining the patent as granted, the proprietor filed a 2nd auxiliary request corresponding to the request held allowable by the OD, although did not specifically mention in the grounds of appeal that these requests were the same. The proprietor's 1st auxiliary request was identical to his 2nd, except for the addition of a new dependent claim 5, which was added to establish identical dependency as in the underlying PCT application.

The Board did not admit the1st auxiliary request into the proceedings, since the amendment was not occasioned by the impugned decision or by a new objection raised by the opponent. Rather, the request was viewed by the Board as an attempt to tidy up the allowable claim set and thus not admissible under Art. 12(4) RPBA.

The Board further observed that for admissibility under Art. 12(4), compliance with Rule 80 EPC is not the decisive factor.

The opponent attempted to argue that the proprietor's 2nd auxiliary request was inadmissible because it was not readily apparent from the proprietor's written submissions that the request corresponded to the request allowed by the OD, in contravention of Art. 12(2) RPBA. The Board held that there is no requirement under this article to indicate in the grounds of appeal that a claim request has already been submitted in the first-instance proceedings.

The 2nd auxiliary request was found admissible and was allowed.

Wednesday, September 06, 2017 T 158/14 - Hidden in plain sight

If your appeal to an opposition is entirely based on new documents, which moreover could have been found with a straightforward Espacenet search, should your appeal then be inadmissible? 

The opponent filed two new Japanese documents (D9 and D10) together with its appeal. The proprietor objects to these documents on the basis that they could easily have been found in a search during the opposition period. In particular, the proprietor observes that an Espacenet search in the same EPC class as the opposed patent for the year prior to the priority year gives document D10 as its very first hit.  Document D9 requires a bit more work, but is found in a similar manner. According to the opponent, basing an appeal on these late-filed documents is not only inadmissible but amounts to an abuse of procedure.

The opponent has it own complaints about the proprietor though. Three days before the oral proceedings, a further response is filed of about 90 pages, including new requests. 

The board doesn't go along with either objection. 

Thursday, August 24, 2017 T 293/12 - First substantive response after summons

Will the board admit a 'just in time' submission?

What is the position of a party in opposition appeal who did not respond to the statement of the grounds, but did file a submission in response to the summons to oral proceedings? 

In response to the notice of appeal, one of the opponents (respondent 2) filed a brief letter stating that it would await the statement of grounds of appeal and announced its intention to submit a reply later in due course. After the statement of the grounds was filed, the board set a time limit of 4 month to file such a response. However, no further submissions were filed until a month before oral proceedings. 

The proprietor considers that the opponent has lost it chance to file arguments, by not filing a timely response to the statement of the grounds--since the opponent had not filed a reply to the grounds of appeal, one cannot regard its later submission as an amendment to a party's case. On the other hand, the opponent considers the submission to be just further arguments, and sees no reason why they should not be admitted. The board find a middle ground, taking the submission into account but as a later amendment to a party's case.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017 T 2117/11 - Devolutive effect of the appeal

The examining division held that the claims relating, on the one hand, to a needle assembly and, on the other hand, to a method of making a needle assembly were not linked by the same special technical features and this raised a non-unity objection. The applicant subsequently filed a new set of further amended claims limited to a needle assembly. The examining division raised further objections under Articles 123(2), 84, 54(1),(3) EPC, and, after being requeste to do so, took as decision according to the state of the file - to refuse. The applicant appealed. With the statement of grounds, the appellant requested that the decision under appeal be set aside and a patent be granted on the basis of a new set of claims  directed to a needle assembly, as annexed to the statement of grounds. In response to the preliminary opinion issued by the Board and attached to the summons for oral proceedings, the appellant filed a new main request directed to a method of making a needle assembly. The Board did not allow this change because the applicant's choice of limiting to the claimed needle assembly rather than keeping the method as well and challenging the non-unity objection entailed that the examination of the application was limited to the selected subject-matter only, i.e. the claimed needle assembly. The decision was consequently based on the set of claims limited to a needle assembly - and this subject-matter thus defines the limit to the power of the Board to examine the appeal.

Monday, September 19, 2016 T 1784/14 Inadmissible request

This case deals with a second appeal in opposition. In the first opposition proceeding the opposition division decided to revoke the patent. In the first opposition appeal proceedings the proprietor submitted a main request and six auxiliary requests. The board of appeal rejected the the main, first and second auxiliary requests and remitted the case to the opposition division for further prosecution on the basis of the third auxiliary request. 

The opposition division decided that the third auxiliary request met the requirements of the EPC. In the second appeal proceedings the proprietor requested that the appeals be dismissed or, alternatively, that the case be remitted to the opposition division for consideration of the fourth to sixth auxiliary requests as filed before (referred to hereinafter as first to third auxiliary requests) or alternatively, if this request was not allowed, that these auxiliary requests be considered by the board. The proprietor did not submit any facts, evidence or arguments in support of the allowability of any of its claim requests. 

The Board follows T 1732/10: unsubstantiated claim requests which are not self-explanatory become effective only at the date on which substantiation is provided. Their filing in and of itself plays no role, no matter when they are filed. In the present case no substantiation was provided at any time during the entire appeal proceedings. As a logical consequence, the claim requests must be considered not validly filed at all.

Catchword: If no substantiation is provided, at any stage during the appeal proceedings, for claim amendments which are not self-explanatory, the requests containing those amendments may be considered not validly filed (T 1732/10 r.3 followed)

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 T 399/13 - No why, so inadmissible

When filing the appeal against the decision from the Opposition Division, the appellant filed three new sets of amended claims and arguments as to their allowability, but did not give a reasoning why the appealed decision was wrong. Without this necessary link between the contested decision and the statement of grounds, the appeal was held inadmissible by the Board.

Friday, September 18, 2015 T 327/13 - Standing and falling as a whole

This opposition appeal is against the Opposition Division's decision to maintain claim 3 as granted (in the context of claim 1 of auxiliary request 1). The appellant considered himself to be adversely affected as by the Opposition Division's decision not to maintain claim 2 as granted. Of relevance in the present case is that claim 2 as granted was not the subject of an individual request in the opposition proceedings, but rather only included as a dependent claim in the main request.

Summary of Facts and Submissions

III. The Opposition Division held that the patent proprietors' main request could not be allowed because the subject-matter of amended claim 1 lacked novelty over D1, but that, account being taken of the amendments in the patent proprietors' auxiliary request 1, the patent and the invention to which it relates meet the requirements of the EPC.

IV. This interlocutory decision has been appealed by the patent proprietors (in the following "the appellants").

(...)

IX. The written and oral arguments of the appellants, insofar as they are relevant for the present decision, can be summarised as follows:

The Opposition Division's decision to maintain claim 3 as granted (in the context of claim 1 of auxiliary request 1) is not challenged; however, the appellants are adversely affected by the Opposition Division's decision not to maintain claim 2 as granted, although its subject-matter is novel and inventive in view of D1 (WO 00/35614 A1, filed with the notice of opposition and cited in the decision under appeal).

Clearly the appellants are adversely affected by the Opposition Division's decision to dismiss their main request. It also follows from T 528/93 that, only when a request is withdrawn during the opposition proceedings and re-filed in appeal, is the appellant not adversely affected by the decision of the Opposition Division as far as this request is concerned. In the present case, the appellants did not withdraw their main request and thus, following the reasoning of T 528/93, they are adversely affected by the decision of the Opposition Division to dismiss it.

It is established case law, see for instance T 760/08 (point 2 of the reasons) and T 1708/08 (point 1.3 of the reasons), that the statement of the grounds for appeal satisfies the requirements of Article 108 EPC, third sentence, even if it does not state any specific reason why the decision is contested, provided there is a change in the subject of the proceedings due to the filing of new claims and where the reasons for the decision are no longer relevant in view of the new claims. The appellants filed two new sets of claims which remedy the deficiency of the appellants' main request as identified by the Opposition Division in its decision. Thus, the appeal should be considered as being sufficiently substantiated.