e) Dealing with issues that go beyond the decision itself 

In T 473/98 (OJ 2001, 231) the board held that it is entirely appropriate and desirable in the interests of overall procedural efficiency and effectiveness that an opposition division should include in the reasons for a revocation decision pursuant to Art. 102(1) EPC 1973 employing the standard decision formula, by way of obiter dicta, findings which could obviate remittal in the event of the revocation being reversed on appeal. By contrast, the board in T 615/95 decided that an examining division's decision should not normally be supplemented by annexes dealing with issues having no relation to the issues dealt with in the reasons for this decision.