Key points
- “In its examination of the appeal case, the board identified some deficiencies in the proceedings before the examining division and in the decision under appeal.”
- “deficiency concerns the excessive length of the proceedings. The application, which claims priority from a Korean application filed on 23 November 2002, was filed as a European application on 24 November 2003 and refused at the oral proceedings on 13 November 2018. Between the applicant's letter of 22 March 2010 and the summons to oral proceedings eight years later on 8 May 2018 the examining division did not issue any office actions. ”
- “In line with a number of decisions of the Boards of Appeal, including T 823/11 of 21 December 2015, T 2377/17 of 3 December 2018 and T 2707/16 of 11 December 2018, such delays may constitute a procedural violation.”
- “According to decision T 2707/16, "a reimbursement of the appeal fee in view of unreasonable delays in first-instance proceedings should be regarded as equitable only where the applicant has made clear by some action that [it] did not tacitly agree with the stagnation of the proceedings" (Reasons 36).”
- “During the long examination proceedings, it did not request accelerated processing of the application or otherwise protested against the long duration of the examination.”
- “Since [the above mentioned] criterion is not met in the case in hand, it is irrelevant whether the unreasonable examination delays constituted a substantial procedural violation.”
T 2481/19 -
https://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/recent/t192481eu1.html
6. In its examination of the appeal case, the board identified some deficiencies in the proceedings before the examining division and in the decision under appeal.
[...]
6.3 Another deficiency concerns the excessive length of the proceedings. The application, which claims priority from a Korean application filed on 23 November 2002, was filed as a European application on 24 November 2003 and refused at the oral proceedings on 13 November 2018. Between the applicant's letter of 22 March 2010 and the summons to oral proceedings eight years later on 8 May 2018 the examining division did not issue any office actions. In line with a number of decisions of the Boards of Appeal, including T 823/11 of 21 December 2015, T 2377/17 of 3 December 2018 and T 2707/16 of 11 December 2018, such delays may constitute a procedural violation.
source http://justpatentlaw.blogspot.com/2021/08/t-248119-length-of-proceedings.html
