ADMISSIBILITY OF DISCLAIMERS – NEW LESSIONS FROM THE EPO TECHNICAL BOARDS OF APPEAL
Last year, the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) handed down its decision in case G2/10 relating to the admissibility of disclaimers whose subject matter was disclosed as an embodiment (i.e. ‚positively disclosed‘ disclaimers) in the application as originally filed (cf. Newsletter issue of September 2011).
The EBA ruled that an amendment to a claim by the introduction of a disclaimer disclaiming from it subject matter disclosed in the application as filed infringes Article 123(2) EPC if the subject matter remaining in the claim after the introduction of the disclaimer is not, be it explicitly or implicitly, directly and unambiguously disclosed in the application as originally filed.