Key points
- The appellant paid the appeal fee by mistake at the reduced rate, at the time that the reduced rate was the same as the (only) fee rate before the introduction of the reduction.
- "the appellant pointed out that it "checked by mistake the wrong appeal fee box in Form 1038 filed with the Notice of Appeal". Thus, the appellant requested that the amount of the appeal fee indicated in the debit order filed with the Notice of appeal be corrected under Rule 139 EPC."
- " In several decisions the Boards of Appeal acknowledged the applicability of Rule 139 EPC to debit orders (cf. T 317/19, T 2620/18, T 1000/19 and T 444/20). The Board does not see any reasons to deviate from the established case law."
- " the appellant pointed out in essence that a template had been used for creating the Notice of appeal and that the error in the amount of the appeal fee had not been detected due to the fact that the former amount for the (full) appeal fee was identical with the (then) valid amount of the reduced appeal fee. The Board finds this explanation credible. In that regard, the Board points to decision T 2620/18 (followed for instance also by T 444/20) which concerned very similar circumstances."
- As to whether the request was made without delay: " the Board would like to point out that the relevant point in time for the question as to whether a request for correction has been filed without delay can only be the date on which the mistake had been discovered by the responsible person. Since the appellant filed the request immediately after having been informed by the EPO about the payment of the reduced appeal fee the Board considers criterion d) of G 1/12, point 37 of the Reasons, as met. " (even if this was in December 2020 whereas the Notice of appeal was filed in November 2019).
- " the correction of the debit order means that the fee payment had been effected in time and that the appeal is deemed to have been filed (cf. also J 8/19, Reasons point 3; T 317/19, Reasons point 3)."
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/2023/01/t-309819-correction-of-debit-orders.html
