List of decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office

This is a list of decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) in chronological order of the dates when the decisions were issued. The list is incomplete.

Keys:	Decision(s), after referral by a Board of Appeal under Art. 112(1)(a) EPC	Opinion, after referral by the President of the EPO under Art. 112(1)(b) EPC	Decision and opinion, in consolidated or identical cases

1980 – 1989

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 1/83 G 2/83 G 3/83 G 4/83 G 5/83 G 6/83 G 7/83	12 May 1984	Patentability - Art. 52(4) - first and second medical indications (G 1/83, G 5/83 and G 6/83 have been published, respectively in German, English and French, the three official languages of the EPO. The four other decisions have not been published.)	[1] [2] [3]
G 1/84	24 July 1985	Opposition by proprietor - overturned by G 9/93	[4]
G 1/86	24 June 1987	Art. 122 - Restitutio in integrum - opponent not barred - time limit statement grounds of appeal	[5]
G 4/88	24 April 1989	Opposition - transfer - part of the business assets	[6]
G 2/88	12 November 1989	Art. 123(3) - change of category - use claim novel by its purpose	[7]
G 6/88	12 November 1989	Novelty - second non-medical indication yes (Partially identical to G 2/88.)	[8]

1990 – 1994

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 1/89 G 2/89	21 February 1990	Patent Cooperation Treaty - unity of invention - a priori and a posteriori	[9] [10]
G 5/88 G 7/88 G 8/88	16 November 1990	Filing of notice of opposition at the DPMA before July 1, 1989	[11] [12] [13]
G 7/91 G 8/91	11 May 1992	Appeal - withdrawal of sole appellant - termination	[14] [15]
G 3/89 G 11/91	19 November 1992	Art. 123(2) - strictly declaratory nature of Rule 88 corrections	[16] [17]
G 1/92	18 December 1992	Novelty - availability to the public - prior use	[18]
G 9/91	31 March 1993	Framework of opposition and appeal - extent	[19]
G 10/91	31 March 1993	Framework of opposition and appeal - grounds	[20]
G 4/92	22 October 1993	Oral proceedings - party absent - new facts or evidence	[21]
G 1/93	21 February 1994	Art. 123(2) & (3) - conflict - inescapable trap	[22]
G 9/93	7 June 1994	Opposition by patent proprietor - no - overturning G 1/84	[23]
G 9/92 G 4/93	14 July 1994	Framework of appeal - extent (decision) - reformatio in peius (With an indication of a minority opinion.)	[24] [25]
G 1/94	5 November 1994	Intervention during pending appeal proceedings - fresh grounds	[26]
G 10/93	30 November 1994	Framework of appeal - ex parte - main aim: examination of the contested decision but no ban from introducing new grounds, facts or evidence	[27]

1995 – 1999

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 4/95	19 February 1996	Oral proceedings - representation - accompanying person ("Oral submissions by an accompanying person in opposition or opposition appeal proceedings")	[28]
G 1/95 G 7/95	19 July 1996	Framework of opposition and appeal - Art. 100(a) - collection of grounds	[29] [30]
G 3/97 G 4/97	2 January 1999	Opposition on behalf of third party - strawman - circumvention of law by abuse of process	[31] [32]
G 1/97	12 October 1999	Appeal - request to review a final decision, not provided for in the EPC	[33]

2000 – 2004

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 1/99	4 February 2001	Framework of appeal -extent (decision) - reformatio in peius - exception	[34]
G 2/98	31 May 2001	Priority - same invention - direct and unambiguous derivation	[35]
G 1/03 G 2/03	8 April 2004	Allowability of disclaimers	[36] [37]

2005 – 2009

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 2/04	25 May 2005	Transfer of opposition (i.e., of the status as an opponent), filing of an appeal when "there is a justifiable legal uncertainty as to how the law is to be interpreted in respect of the question of who the correct party to the proceedings is".	[38]
G 1/05 G 1/06	28 June 2007	Divisional applications	[39] [40]
G 2/06	25 November 2008	Stem cells, non-patentability of inventions involving the use and destruction of human embryos, Rule 28(c) EPC.	[41]

From 2010

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 1/07	15 February 2010	Methods for treatment by surgery	[42][43]
G 4/08	16 February 2010	Language of the proceedings. No change of the language of a Euro-PCT application upon entry into European phase if the language of the PCT application is already in an EPO official language.	[44]
G 2/08	19 February 2010	Dosage regimen	[45][46]
G 3/08	12 May 2010	Patentability of programs for computers, referral dismissed	[47]
G 1/09	27 September 2010	Pending application. Time limit for filing a divisional application, and meaning of "pending" in Rule 25 EPC 1973 (Rule 36(1) EPC) [1]	[48]
G 2/07 G 1/08	9 December 2010	Essentially biological processes	[49] [50]
G 2/10	30 August 2011	Allowability of disclaimers under Article 123(2) EPC if the disclaimed subject-matter was (positively) disclosed as an embodiment of the invention in the application as filed	[51]

Pending referrals

Reference	Date	Keywords and/or comments	Sources
G 1/10	referred 23 June 2010	Correction of the decision to grant after initiation of opposition proceedings, application of Rule 140 EPC [2] (referral in Board of Appeal decision T 1145/09)	[52]
G 1/11	referred 4 August 2011	Competence of the Boards of Appeal

Trivia

• Case G 3/92 also led to an indication of a dissenting opinion, relating to an issue of right to the patent (Article 61 EPC)
• Case G 9/93 reversed previous opinion laid out in G 1/84, regarding the allowability of an opposition by the patent proprietor. G 1/84 accepted such type of opinion, G 9/93 then rejected it.

References and notes

1. ^ More comments may be found on: Another EBA referral on divisionals, IPKat, 11 June 2009. Consulted on June 12, 2009 and (French) Laurent Teyssedre, Demandes divisionnaires : la Grande Chambre est à nouveau saisie, Le blog du droit européen des brevets, June 10, 2009. Consulted on June 12, 2009.
2. ^ More comments may be found on: New referral to the EBO: until when can a correction under Rule 140 be requested?, IPKat, 14 July 2010. Consulted on June 17, 2009 and (French) Laurent Teyssedre, G1/10 : peut-on corriger les décisions de délivrance pendant une procédure d'opposition ?, Le blog du droit européen des brevets, July 16, 2010. Consulted on July 17, 2010.

See also

• List of patent case law

External links

• Enlarged Board of Appeal decisions and opinions, on the EPO website
• Index of decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal published in the Official Journal of the EPO and issued while EPC 1973 was in force, on the EPO web site