5.4.1 General

It is the established case law of the boards of appeal that the appeal procedure is designed to ensure that the proceedings are as brief and concentrated as possible and ready for decision at the conclusion of oral proceedings, if scheduled. An important aim of Art. 12 and 13 RPBA 2007 was – and (where still applicable) is – that the parties' submissions were concentrated at as early a stage as possible so that the case was as complete as possible when it came to processing it (T 1315/08, see also T 727/14). Therefore, amendments to the claims were to be filed at the earliest possible moment (T 214/05, T 382/05).

As explained by the board in T 1488/08, Art. 12(2) RPBA 2007 provided a cut-off point after which any further submission was ipso facto late and subject to the discretionary power of the board. The intended overall effect of this article was to require the parties to present a complete case at the outset of the proceedings in order to provide the board with an appeal file containing comprehensive submissions from each party and to prevent procedural tactical abuses. In T 1744/14 it was noted that merely making general reference to submissions in preceding opposition proceedings could not normally replace an account of the legal and factual reasons supporting a specific objection.

Art. 13 RPBA 2007 left it to the board's discretion to consider amendments made to a party's case after filing of the statement of grounds of appeal. In particular, new submissions were not to be considered if this would have required an adjournment of already scheduled oral proceedings (Art. 13(3) RPBA 2007).