Source: https://www.bardehle.com/ip-news-knowledge/ip-news/news-detail/comments-to-the-revision-of-the-rules-of-procedure-of-the-boards-of-appeal-of-the-epo-first-public.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 20:55:41+00:00

Document:
In respect of the project to revise the RPBA, we believe that the aim should not be to limit the rights of the parties to the proceedings but to harmonize the practice of the Boards and thereby to make decisions more foreseeable. To this end, it appears appropriate to keep in mind that the RPBA are not a set of Rules to be seen in isolation. Rather, the basic principles of the Convention have to be kept in mind, in particular the fundamental principle of the right to be heard. It should not happen that the right to be heard is interpreted in the light of the RPBA3 but the RPBA should be drafted and interpreted in the light of the right to be heard. The amended text should contain a clear statement that the RPBA have to be applied in conformity with the parties’ right to be heard.
The Draft recites the EBA’s statement in G 9/91 that it is the primary purpose of the appeal proceedings to judicially review the decision under appeal. Implementing this principle, numerous restrictions of the parties’ right to make submissions have been justified in the past and more are now proposed for the future.
The requirement that the appeal shall be directed to the "requests … on which the decision under appeal was based" may be interpreted to restrict the parties to the requests submitted in first instance proceedings. In this respect, see the comments on Art. 12(6).
Making the justification of new submissions a requirement for routine cases would have the consequence that the justification will be an additional point at issue in all inter partes cases. Being obliged to act in the interest of his client, the opponent’s representative will have to object to the amendment in all cases. This will certainly not make appeal proceedings more efficient.
Art. 12(4) RPBA as in force, corresponding to Art. 10a(4) RPBA 2003 was conceived as an exception to the general rule in Art. 12(1) RPBA that appeal proceedings shall be based on the statement of grounds of appeal and the reply thereto, thereby more or less guaranteeing the consideration of any subject matter relating to the case if filed at the very beginning of appeal proceedings. This becomes clear from the structure of the provision, the first paragraph containing the general rule and the fourth paragraph an exception. The wording "Without prejudice to the power … to hold inadmissible … everything shall be taken into account …" also shows that the overriding principle is to take everything into account which is limited by the Board’s power to hold certain submissions inadmissible.
It may be added that the EBA in G 7/93 did not accept the procedural reasons for not allowing the amendment, stating that the amendment, requested at the latest possible date, should be allowed. The EBA concluded that the importance to the party of obtaining a valid patent was decisive, even if the amendment caused a short delay. Thus, the EBA considered the substantive interest of the party in obtaining appropriate protection as a more relevant criterion than the interest of the Examining Division to terminate the case without further effort. It appears that, for justifying restrictions for reviewing the discretion exercised by the departments of first instance, an isolated sentence is taken out from G 7/93 without accepting the EBA’s general message that it is the main task of the EPO to grant appropriate protection for the invention disclosed in the application.
The drafting of both sentences Art. 12 (6) of the proposal that the "Board shall not admit" … submissions … "unless" … will be interpreted to mean that admission is the exception. In practice, it is a quite normal situation, that the appellant, having studied the decision under appeal, accepts the reasoning and pursues his case with claims removing the deficiencies objected to in the requests submitted with his grounds of appeal. For ex parte cases, this is expressly foreseen in Art. 109 EPC, providing for interlocutory revision. The main case for interlocutory revision is that the applicant removes the deficiencies on which the refusal of the application was based. In this situation, the Examining Division is obliged to grant interlocutory revision.19 However, this presupposes that the amendment with claims which could/should have been submitted in first instance proceedings is to be admitted.
Only submissions not made in due time may be disregarded at the Boards’ discretion. This discretion is not free and unlimited. As any discretionary decision in judicial proceedings, the discretion has to be exercised in an objective manner considering all relevant circumstances.20 Thus, as a rule, it is not the admission of submissions which requires justification, but disregarding submissions has to be reasoned in an objective and understandable way.
5.3	Art. 15(7) and (8) rev.
Notwithstanding the above objections to abridged decisions as proposed, decisions could often be drafted more to the point and at the same time more efficiently. Quite often decisions are much too long repeating the whole history of the case and all submissions of the parties. Board members should be trained to write shorter decisions, i.e. decisions not containing details which are not relevant for the Board’s conclusions on which the order of the decision is based.
Anetsberger, Wegner, Ann et al., Increasing Formalism in Appeal Proceedings – The Boards of Appeal Headed to a mere Reviewing Instance?, epi Information 2/15, 63.
G 9/91, OJ EPO 1993, 408 – Power to examine/ROHM AND HAAS, Reasons Pt. 18.
G 7/93, OJ EPO 1994, 775 – Late submissions.

References: Art. 12

Art. 12
 Art. 10
 Art. 12
 Art. 12
 Art. 109
	Art. 15