An End To Adapting The Description To Allowed Claims At The EPO?

According to EPO Examining Division practice, once claims are found to be allowable, the description must be "adapted to the claims to avoid inconsistencies between the claims and the description" (The Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office, Part F, Chapter IV, section 4.3, paragraph iii¹). In a recent decision (T1989/18²) an EPO Technical Board of Appeal considered the legal basis for this requirement.

The appeal was filed against a decision by the Examining Division to refuse European patent application number 12810245.6³. While the claims were found to be allowable, the amendments made to the description to "adapt" it to the claims were considered insufficient. In particular, the Examining Division considered that the description was broader than the subject matter of the allowed claims. The application was therefore refused for falling foul of Article 84⁴ of the European Patent Convention (EPC), which requires that the claims be clear,