6.2.1 Previous participation in cases as members of the boards of appeal

In R 12/09 of 3 December 2009 date: 2009-12-03 (see also R 2/14 of 17 February 2015 date: 2015-02-17) the petitioner had objected to the Enlarged Board members, alleging that they inevitably had a personal interest owing to their capacity as members of a technical board or the Legal Board of Appeal. The board observed that the legislator had consciously decided to allocate the task of hearing petitions for review to the Enlarged Board as a pre-existing body with appointed members and, when doing so, had been fully aware that those members were for the most part also experienced members of technical boards or the Legal Board of Appeal. The legislator could thus only have intended that those members also be deployed in procedures under Art. 112a EPC. The legislator had demonstrated its intention that these members' dual function should not, by itself, constitute a reason for objecting to or excluding them when it came to performing this task. The objection was thus dismissed as inadmissible.