PATENT | The EPO Board of Appeal on the acceleration of an EPO appeal pending a parallel UPC proceeding

The EPO Board of the Appeal (“BoA”) has recently issued its decision in case T 1841/23, which addresses the issue of how to deal with third-party interventions when they are received shortly before an oral proceedings set in the context of opposition proceedings. In the case at issue, a defendant in a UPC infringement proceeding filed a notice of intervention in a parallel opposition proceedings pending before the BoA shortly before the scheduled oral proceedings and, therefore, the BoA decided to accelerate the appeal proceedings. In its decision, the BoA rejected the patentee’s request for a postponement of the oral proceedings based on the alleged violation of Art. 113 of the European Patent Convention based on the following grounds: (a) the accelerated procedure justified shorter times period; (b) the BoA had given clear guidance on which aspects were most relevant to be addressed; (c) the notice of intervention only argued on old topics which the patentee already had occasion to discuss in the course of the appeal proceedings.

Newsletter n. 104 – February 2025