7. Relation to opposition proceedings
7.2 Filing of opposition after decision on limitation
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.