7. Relation to opposition proceedings
On rare occasions it may happen that the limitation procedure is finished before an opposition is filed within the nine-month period and the decision to limit has already been published in the European Patent Bulletin. In such cases the opponent does not benefit from a new nine-month period, since the opposition period runs only once from publication of the mention of the grant of the patent. Accordingly, the opponent will not have a full nine-month period to formulate the opposition for the patent as limited.