Key points
- Rule 103 EPC is a gift that keeps on giving for this weblog.
- "According to Rule 103(4)(c) EPC, the appeal fee is to be reimbursed at 25% if any request for oral proceedings is withdrawn "within one month of notification" of a communication issued by the board in preparation for the oral proceedings, and no oral proceedings take place. "
- "In the present case, the appellant withdrew its request for oral proceedings after the board had issued the summons to oral proceedings but before notification of a communication issued in preparation for the oral proceedings. "
- " The question therefore arises how "within one month of notification" is to be understood."
- "Although point 84 of CA/80/19 refers to the notification of the board's communication in Rule 103(4)(c) EPC as "[t]he point at which the appellant ... should be incentivised to withdraw the request for oral proceedings", the board sees insufficient reason to treat the condition "within one month of notification" in Rule 103(4)(c) EPC differently from the corresponding condition in Rule 103(3)(a) EPC. Indeed, a "too early" withdrawal of the request for oral proceedings only makes it more likely that the board will be able to use the freed-up capacity to schedule oral proceedings in another appeal case (cf. CA/80/19, point 82)."
- "Hence, for the purpose of Rule 103(4)(c) EPC, in the present case the request for oral proceedings was withdrawn "within one month of notification" of a communication by the board."
- And the same applies for the withdrawal of an appeal "within one month of notification" for the purpose of Rule 103(3)(a) EPC.
EPO
The link to the decision is provided after the jump, as well as (an extract of) the text of the decision.
source http://justpatentlaw.blogspot.com/2022/05/t-236118-within-one-month-of.html
