Last week, the European Patent Office released two new decisions by the Enlarged Board of Appeal on petitions for review, R 2/11 and R 10/11. Both the underlying petitions were based on what the petitioners regarded as fundamental procedural defects before respective Boards of Appeal 3.2.04 and 3.2.03.
Both cases are appeals from opposition proceedings. In R 10/11, the Board had refused to discuss late-filed requests for claim amendments. In R 2/11, an Opponent had been allowed to make an oral presentation of the technical background. The Proprietor was taken by surprise by the Opponent’s presentation; he had not prepared his counterarguments, he could hear at least one half-truth in the presentation – and to his great horror, the presentation had a very convincing effect on the Board!
However, the Enlarged Board did not go into the details of neither case, but noted only that neither of the petitioners had raised an objection in respect of the procedural defect in due time. Indeed, as provided by Rule 106 EPC, the Enlarged Board shall not deal with a purported procedural defect unless the Board of Appeal has been made aware of it during the appeal proceedings.
Looking at the decisions on petitions handed down by the Enlarged Board in 2010 and 2011, we see that a breach of Rule 106 EPC was a sufficient ground for rejection in 7 out of 34 non-withdrawn petitions (R 3/11, R 7/11, R 17/10, R 1/10, R 6/10, R 7/10, R 9/09). In other words, appeal proceedings are no place for silent suffering; if you are unhappy with the way the proceedings are conducted, you should voice your concern and make sure it gets written down in the minutes.
Anders Hansson, European Patent Attorney