Key points
- The appellant pays the appeal fee at the reduced rate by debit order. After an invitation of the Board to submit evidence of the SME status, the appellant requests a correction of the debit order.
- " The Board is convinced that by filing the appeal the appellant had the intention to pay the full appeal fee. In its supplemental declaration of 3 September 2020 the appellant's professional representative convincingly stated that it had never been his intention to pay the reduced fee - because his client never gave such an instruction - and that the error occurred simply because a member of the support staff ticked the wrong box on the form which he then overlooked. This is also in line with point 5 of the declaration of the representative's assistant, dated 6 March 2020. The Board has no reason to mistrust these statements. By contrast, nothing in the file indicates that the payment of the full fee could not have been intended. The Board therefore concludes that, in this case, the submitted evidence meets the requirements set out by the Enlarged Board."
- The appeal is considered to have been filed.
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/2023/08/t-153819-correction-of-debit-order.html
