3.2. No change of legal status of documents after withdrawal of intervention

In T 1665/16 documents E1 to E20 were filed with an intervention during appeal proceedings. The intervener subsequently withdrew its intervention. The patent proprietor (respondent) requested that the documents should not be admitted into the proceedings. The board held that the withdrawal had not changed the legal and factual status of documents E1 to E20. The withdrawal of the intervention only terminated the status of the intervener as opponent and party to the proceedings but had no direct procedural consequences for the appeal proceedings, as the original opponent, who had filed a valid appeal, remained a party to the proceedings. The withdrawal of the intervention did not affect the legal validity of procedural acts like the filing of documents or other evidence carried out before the withdrawal. In particular, it did not render the intervention retroactively inadmissible, since it had only the legal effect ex nunc. There was no legal basis for regarding documents E1 to E20 as retroactively late filed. Since there was no legal basis in the EPC for the exclusion of documents from opposition proceedings which continued when one of the oppositions was withdrawn, documents E1 to E20 submitted by the opponent/intervener remained in the proceedings and had to be taken into account in the board's decision.