5.13.5 Late submission of experimental data
In T 192/09 the late filing of the additional experimental report could not be seen as an abuse of procedure. The new results had been submitted one month before the oral proceedings, in accordance with the instructions of the board. This had provided the respondent with adequate time to examine the data, decide if counterexperiments were necessary and assess whether it was feasible to provide these within the available time.
In T 317/10 the board admitted into the proceedings a late-filed test report which had been filed shortly before the scheduled oral proceedings, finding that its late submission did not raise issues which the board or the respondent could not reasonably be expected to deal with without adjournment of the oral proceedings. Similarly, in T 596/11, in view of the prima facie highly relevant nature of the results in a test report, and the fact that no objections to their lateness, correctness or admittance had been raised by the respondent, the board admitted them into the proceedings.