Key points
- [The opponent's insufficiency argument] fails to convince the Board, not least because it misapplies case law developed in the field of chemistry, where a claimed invention resides in a compositional range or other range of values but the associated effect may not be proven or plausible for large parts of that range, to a claimed invention in the mechanical field, even if it claims no ranges.
- “By its very nature a claim in this field, which - often in functional or other generic terms - attempts to capture the essence of some concrete machine or mechanical structure (or its operation), is schematic allowing for some breadth of interpretation. It may be that on clever construction subject-matter can be found to be covered within that breadth that may not solve the problem or achieve the desired effect. However, this is normally not an issue of lack of disclosure, but rather of claim construction.”
T 2773/18 -
https://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/recent/t182773eu1.html
3. Sufficiency of disclosure - Article 100(b) EPC
3.1 The contention of lack of sufficiency of disclosure concerns the expression "upper part of the tower" that according to paragraph 022 of the patent is defined as the part of the tower located above the sea spray zone. The appellant argues that the claim is neither limited to an offshore wind turbine nor is the dimension of the lower and upper parts limited to a minimum size or height. The scope of claim 1 thus covers embodiments where the inlet is located quite low above sea level and therefore unable to achieve the technical effect of drawing outside air with a low water and salt content as explained in paragraphs 008 to 010 of the patent.
3.2 This argument fails to convince the Board, not least because it misapplies case law developed in the field of chemistry, where a claimed invention resides in a compositional range or other range of values but the associated effect may not be proven or plausible for large parts of that range, to a claimed invention in the mechanical field, even if it claims no ranges.
source http://justpatentlaw.blogspot.com/2021/08/t-277318-sufficiency-in-mechanical-field.html