d) No new issue raised by board's comments in communication under Article 15 RPBA 2020 

In its communication under Art. 15(1) RPBA 2020, the board in T 684/18 expressed doubts about the arguments the appellant (opponent) had put forward on the novelty of claim 1 of the main request. This prompted the appellant to attack inventive step. The board held that its comment in relation to the novelty of the claimed subject-matter had not in itself given rise to any new issue that could have justified responding with a new attack on inventive step.