I. An amendment to a patent by the introduction of a "negative" technical feature into a claim resulting in the exclusion of certain embodiments is, regardless of the name "disclaimer", none the less an amendment governed by Articles 123(2) and (3) EPC (point 2.2 of the Reasons for the Decision).

II. The practice of permitting disclaimers having no support in the application as filed to make a claimed subject-matter novel by delimiting it against an accidental anticipation cannot be maintained in the light of the Enlarged Board of Appeal's opinion G 0002/98 (point 2.3 and 2.4 of the Reasons for the Decision).

III. Any amendment of a claim not having support in the application as filed and aiming at distancing the claimed subject-matter further from the state of the art, in particular by way of a disclaimer, contravenes Article 123(2) EPC (point 2.5 of the Reasons for the Decision).

Disclaimer (main request) (no) - disclaimer not based upon application as filed is not admissible
Request filed for the first time at oral proceedings - not admissible
Inventive step (no)

• View the full document as PDF file
• Voll-Dokument als PDF Dokument betrachten
• Visualiser le document complet au format PDF