In one of his last acts as President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benoît Battistelli has referred a question to the Enlarged Board of Appeal concerning appeal fees and the interpretation of Article 108 EPC. The case is now pending under the reference G1/18.
The English translation of the referral provided by the EPO website is as follows:
If notice of appeal is filed and/or the appeal fee is paid after expiry of the two month time limit under Article 108 EPC, is the appeal inadmissible or is it deemed not to have been filed, and must the appeal fee be reimbursed?
The EPO acknowledges that such a question had already been referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal in G1/14 and G2/14, but that no conclusion had been reached on this issue.
The Communication from the Boards of Appeal can be found here. The EPO President's referral (in French) can be found here.
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