Friday, September 28, 2018 T 1627/09 - self-recuse of Board of appeal after successful petition for review

Two board members recuse themselves

After the successful petition for review in R 2/14 of 22 April 2016, the case was remitted to the Board of Appeal that had originally decided not to set aside the opposition division's decision to revoke the patent. Upon remittal, the entire board that took that appeal-decision requested to be recused from the case  to avoid a potential perception of bias when they had to decide for a second time on the same issues (actually one member had already retired).  

Interestingly, an issue with Art. 24 also played during the petition for review when the Enlarged board had to decide if the Chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal could be allowed to perform both judicial tasks and executive tasks in his capacity as Vice-President Appeals. 

Monday, October 30, 2017 T 1889/13 - Right to non-overlapping boards?

In this opposition appeal, the appellant requested that the members of the board who were involved in decision T 1676/11 relating to a divisional application of the opposed patent be excluded from taking part in the present appeal proceedings for suspected partiality under Article 24(3) EPC.

The arguments of the appellant can be summarised as follows:

• The critical issues of the present appeal were in essence the same as the critical issues in the previous appeal proceedings T 1676/11 concerning the divisional application. 
• The board members having decided the appeal for the divisional application would have difficulty in re-examining and deciding the present case without having a preconceived or anticipatory judgment or without giving rise to suspicion of such preconceived or anticipatory judgment.

Friday, November 25, 2016 T 792/12 - The atmosphere of the oral proceedings

 

Sometimes, when I read a decision, I feel the atmosphere of the oral proceedings. Sometimes it gives you also some information about the "happiness" of the Board, the Appellant and/or the Respondent. This recently published decision presents some interesting information with respect to these themes and gives a view of the Board whether they have to sit silently in the room or whether they may interrupt the parties.