Key points
- This is an appeal regarding the apportionment of costs. Well, more precisely, against a decision of the OD under Rule 88(3) EPC to fix the costs.
- The representative of the patentee had forgotten the oral proceedings (or at least said so) and did not attend them (they were held in The Hague). The patent was revoked, with an apportionment of costs against the opponent, for the costs of the 4 opponents for the oral proceedings. The patentee did not appeal that decision.
- The formalities officer of the OD then fixed the costs under Rule 88(2) with an order of 14.02.2020 That order is, however, not visible in the online file.
- The patentee then requested a decision of the OD. The OD essentially maintained the order.
- The patentee filed an appeal against the OD's decision. The appeal is admissible; the amount of costs exceeded the appeal fee - by far, the total is about 24k EUR (Rule 97(2)).
- The Board: "there is no reason to doubt that the other costs listed (22.5 hours of preparation) were necessary to prepare for the oral proceedings in view of the number of opponents and documents and filings forming part of the proceedings opposition. Even if some of these documents and writings had probably already been studied at an earlier stage of the procedure, it is well known that good preparation for oral proceedings requires an in-depth study of the case, which implies time significant preparation. The board therefore accepts that opponent 2's preparation costs amount to EUR 6251.77."
- " Opponent 2 indicated a preparation time of 22.5 hours and the Opponent 3 of 20.5 hours, which is certainly different from the number of hours indicated by Opponent 4, but still considerably higher than the day of preparation argued by the applicant. However, it is well known that depending on the importance of the same case for one or the other party, the time invested in preparing for oral proceedings may vary. The board has no concrete indications to cast doubt on the accuracy of the figures provided by opponent 4. Therefore, taking into account opponent 4's travel expenses, the appellant must reimburse ( 1299.27 + 9306)= 10605.27 EUR to opponent 4."
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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/2023/03/t-202420-appeal-against-cost.html
