4.2.2 Second and third levels of the convergent approach: amendments to an appeal case within the meaning of Article 13(1) and (2) RPBA 2020
In T 716/17, the patent proprietors substantially reordered their pending requests several times during the oral proceedings. This resulted in a repeated change in the subject-matter to be discussed, since the auxiliary requests selected by the patent proprietors related to a variety of different and diverging attempts to find allowable subject-matter. The board considered that the reordering of pending requests carried out by the patent proprietors amounted to an amendment of the case, which needed to be justified according to Art. 13(2) RPBA 2020. This requirement was not met.
- 2023 compilation “Abstracts of decisions”