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ARTICLE · 24 SEPTEMBER 2026

G1/25 – Right Back Where We Started From?

Lewis Silkin
Lewis Silkin
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Lewis Silkin

Lewis Silkin

Joint managing partners: Jo Farmer, Richard Miskella International offices: Dublin, Hong Kong...

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The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has issued its decision in G1/25, addressing the contentious question of description amendments in patent applications. While the ruling initially appears to ease the burden on applicants by limiting required amendments to legally significant inconsistencies, the decision's ambiguous definition of "inconsistency" and "real doubt" leaves practitioners uncertain about how Examiners will apply these standards in practice.

United KingdomIntellectual Property
Fabian Bor
Fabian Bor
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The Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) of the European Patent Office issued its decision in referral G1/25 earlier this month, as we reported earlier here, finally addressing the long-debated question: to what extent, if at all, should the description of a patent or patent application be amended to align with the claims?

At first glance, the decision appears to reduce the burden of description amendments. Applicants now only need to adapt the description where an inconsistency between the claims and description has legal significance because it leads to non-compliance with a requirement of the EPC.

However, ambiguity remains as to how this decision will be applied in practice, and what "inconsistency" actually means. This uncertainty leaves the future of description amendments, and the approach Examiners will take, frustratingly unclear.

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