Playing Fairly In Appeals

Following an appeal by both the patentee (Eli Lilly) and the opponent (Dr Armin K. Bohman), the Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has, in T0156/15, raised important points regarding the completeness of a party's case and the requirement for fairness to both parties in the proceedings, as well as the nature of admissible expert evidence.

Late-filed submissions

The patentee filed expert evidence less than two weeks before oral proceedings before the Board, in response to a preliminary opinion of the Board. One (D42) was a technical declaration, while the other (D43) was an opinion of a former member of both the Technical Board of Appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal. In particular, the opinion D43 centred on whether the claims of the patent under appeal recited subject matter which extended beyond the content of the parent application as filed.