Saturday 8 December 2012

T 1232/09 – Only By Reference


In this case the patent proprietor, who appears to have been frightened by recent Article 12(4) RPBA case law, sent the following letter to the Board.


The question arose whether this way of filing requests was alright.

[1.2] Regarding auxiliary requests 1 to 6, the [patent proprietor] declared on 5 August 2011 that these requests filed in the first-instance proceedings were “maintained in the appeal proceedings”.

With this declaration, the board considers that said requests were formally introduced into the appeal proceedings on 5 August 2011. The sole fact that they were submitted only by reference and not in written form cannot be seen as a serious ground for disregarding them during the appeal proceedings.

[1.3] The board therefore decides, in the exercise of its discretion under Articles 13(1) and (3) RPBA, to admit auxiliary requests 1 to 6 […] into the appeal proceedings.

Should you wish to download the whole decision, just click here.

The file wrapper can be found here.

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