Updates on EPC, PCT, EPO case law and the e-EQE

EP 3 425 035 B1 relates to a fast drying and fast draining rinse aid.

Brief outline of the procedure

The patent was revoked as all the requests on file were infringing Art 123(2).

The proprietor appealed. The board confirmed the revocation.

The case is interesting as it relates to the composition of the board which was queried by the proprietor.

EP 3 596 694 A1, published as WO 2019/150160, relates to „A publicly accessible urban beach entertainment complex including a surf feature with a centrepiece man-made tropical style lagoon and method for providing efficient utilisation of limited use land”

Brief outline of the procedure

The applicant appealed the refusal for added subject-matter,

Preliminary note

This a personal recollection of the discussions and does neither intend to be exhaustive nor to be complete.

Should I have missed important aspects in the respective statements, or worse, having misunderstood some of them, I am prepared to amend this post.

The proprietor’s position

The position of the proprietor can be resumed as follows:

• There is no provision in the EPC requiring adaptation of the description
• There is no provision in the EPC requiring that the scope of the claims must be the same as the scope of the disclosure,

WO 2017/060218 A1 relates to an electrical machine with a resonant circuit in shaft grounding.

Brief outline of the procedure

The MR included an added figure 4 which is based figure 3 as originally filed, but in which the parallel inductor/capacitor (LC) resonant circuit is modified to a series LC resonant circuit.

EP 3 385 548 B1 relates to a fixing device.

Brief outline of the case

In the meantime Opponent 2 had been taken to court in Germany on charges of patent infringement.

In a first decision, T 0235/25 2026-01-12,