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Date of decision
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29 June 2004
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Case number
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T 0050/02
- 3.3.1
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Application number
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94908493.3
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Title of the application
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Process for producing 1,1,1,2,2-pentafluoroethane, process for
producing 2,2-dichloro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane, and method of
purifying 1,1,1,2,2-pentafluoroethane
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Applicant name
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DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, LIMITED
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Opponent name
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Solvay (Société Anonyme)
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Keywords
Main request: inventive step (no) - juxtaposition of two known
steps
First, second, (new) fourth, fifth, sixth auxiliary requests:
amendments - supported by the application as filed (no)
Former third and fourth auxiliary requests: withdrawn
Sixth auxiliary request (version 2): inventive step (no) -
juxtaposition of two known steps
Seventh auxiliary request: admissibility (no) - substantially
modified request filed for the first time during oral
proceedings raising new issues
Eighth auxiliary request: inventive step (yes) - non obvious
solution
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Catchwords:
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"A document is made available to the public in the sense of
article 54(2) EPC if all interested parties have an opportunity
of gaining knowledge of the content of the document for their
own purposes, even if they do not have a right to disseminate it
to third parties, provided these third parties would be able to
obtain knowledge of the content of the document by purchasing it
for themselves.
In relation to the two requirements stated in T 300/86 for
something to be considered as being made available to the
public, namely that
(i) all the interested parties must have the opportunity of
gaining knowledge of the content of the document,
(ii) however unrestricted by contractual or other legal
restrictions on use or dissemination of the information therein
this Board considers that only the first is acceptable, but that
the second requirement is too broadly formulated, and not
justified by the phrase "made available to the public" in
Article 54(2) EPC.
The Board sees the essence of the requirement in Article 54 EPC
'being made available to the public' as the information being
available to any interested person, who having once obtained the
information should then be free to exploit the information for
his own purposes in an industrial application. It is not
necessary that this information be supplied free of charge, or
that the recipient should be entitled to disseminate it to all
and sundry, provided others can obtain the information for
themselves from the original source" (cf. points 2.5.2 and
2.5.3).
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