Key points
- The Board finds that the proprietor should have filed the auxiliary request during the oral proceedings before the OD after the OD departed from the preliminary opinion.
- " Having requested a 45 minute interruption in oral proceedings, this having been granted and thereupon having filed replacement auxiliary requests, it seems that the proprietor had sufficient opportunity to fully consider its requests in reaction to the change of opinion of the opposition division. The Board thus sees this to have been the time when auxiliary requests 2 to 6, first filed on appeal, could and should have been filed. In this context, it should also be noted that parties must be prepared for the possibility that the Opposition Division may deviate from its preliminary opinion during the oral proceedings."
EPO
The link to the decision is provided after the jump, as well as (an extract of) the decision text.
source http://justpatentlaw.blogspot.com/2023/11/t-308819-should-have-used-45-min-break.html
