Friday, February 19, 2021 D 5/19 - Remitting to the Board of Appeal with reasons amounts to a decision on the merits of the appeal

We do not often post appeals against decisions on EQE grades, but in this decision a general principle was addressed: how does the Board of Appeal with a situation wherein a first instance comments with a positive opinion on the allowability of an auxiliary request when remitting the appeal to the Board of Appeal in view of the main request not being allowable?
This appeal was filed against the decision of the Examination Board for the EQE 2019 which held that the answer paper to the ED 2019 had been awarded 43 marks and therefore the grade "FAIL". The appellant requested that decision to award her a "FAIL"  be set aside and that her paper instead be awarded a "PASS" (main request), or, alternatively, a "COMPENSABLE FAIL" (auxiliary request).  The appellant was informed by the Exam Secretariat that her appeal had not been allowed by the Examination Board (no interlocutory revision). This letter also stated: "The Examination Board wishes to add the following comment: After remarking, the Examination Board considers that the main request is not allowable. However, the auxiliary request could be allowable. The candidate could be awarded 46 marks: [...]." The Examination Board thus remitted the appeal to the Appeal Board (Disciplinary Board of Appeal) without rectifying its decision. Thus, the situation arise that interlocutory revision did not take place as that cannot be done in view of an auxiliary request, while the Examination Board did comment on the reasons for remitting and on the merits of the auxiliary request. How did the Appeal Board deal with this situation, also in view of their restricted competence in EQE appeals (in particular, the allegedly incorrect, and insufficient, number of points awarded to the appellant's answers not being open for review by the Appeal Board)?

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 J 10/20 - Even in the absence of a general dislocation in the delivery or transmission of mail, users and representatives can rely on statements on the extension of time limits which are made in a Notice in the OJ EPO.

In the present case,  the Receiving Section issued the decision under appeal on 5 December 2019. The appellant filed the notice of appeal on 17 February 2020. On the same day, the appeal fee and the fees for re-establishment of rights were paid. The statement of grounds of appeal was only filed on 2 June 2020. The Board had to assess whether the grounds were filed in time. The Board analyzed and discussed the various Notice from the European Patent Office of spring 2020 concerning the disruptions due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the Notice from the European Patent Office dated 30 March 2020 concerning the extension of periods for the payment of fees. The Board noted that those Notices only refer to '"restrictions on the movement and circulation of persons, as well as on certain services, exchanges and public life in general, which can be qualified as a general dislocation within the meaning of Rule 134(2) EPC" in the Federal Republic of Germany, the State in which the European Patent Office is located.' and notes that 'Rule 134(2) EPC, however, does not refer to a "general dislocation" as such, but to a "general dislocation in the delivery or transmission of mail". The European Patent Office's Notices are silent on whether there was a general dislocation in the delivery or transmission of mail in the Federal Republic of Germany.'. The Board concludes that 'the principle of good faith / protection of legitimate expectations applies: 'Users must not suffer a disadvantage as a result of having relied on erroneous information received from the EPO (G 2/97, point 4.1 of the Reasons). Therefore, even if there was no general dislocation in the delivery or transmission of mail in the Federal Republic of Germany during the relevant period, and even if it were not possible to apply Rule 134(2) EPC by analogy under the given circumstances, users could still rely on the information on the extension of time limits provided in the Notices of the European Patent Office without suffering any disadvantages.'

Friday, October 02, 2015 T 595/11: underpayment of appeal fee and still admissable?

A 20% reduced appeal fee was paid by the Appellant (patent owner) who filed a notice of appeal in Dutch, while the patent owner is a legal person in Switzerland. The EPO communicated the file number to the Appellant and the Respondent (opponent) and indicated that the case was referred to a specific Board without any further comments. Later, when the respondent informed the Board that the Appellant was not entitled to the fee reduction, the Appellant paid the remaining portion of the fee and requested that the EPO to accept the late payment of the full appeal fee through the application of the principle of good faith (according to G2/97: the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations). In this case the Board discusses whether the Appellant could have expected that the EPO checked the entitlement to the fee reduction early enough such that the Appellant could have remedied the Appeal, for example, by paying the full fee on time or by filing a request for re-establishment of rights. In response to arguments of the Respondent, the Board had also to consider whether the consequence of its decision would adversely affect one or more parties to the Appeal if the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations applies to this case.