In accordance with Article 112(1)(a) EPC, Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.06 has referred the following point of law to the Enlarged Board of Appeal with interlocutory decision of 24 February 2014 in case T 2017/12:

Where a notice of appeal is filed but the appeal fee is paid after expiry of the time limit of Article 108, first sentence, EPC, is the appeal inadmissible or is it deemed not to have been filed?

The text of the referral in English is available on the EPO website under http://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/pdf/t122017ex1.pdf

The Enlarged Board of Appeal considering the referral will be composed as follows: W. van der Eijk (Chairman), I. Beckedorf, K. Garnett, H. Meinders, U. Oswald, M.-B. Tardo-Dino, G. Weiss.

Third parties are hereby given the opportunity to file written statements in accordance with Article 10 of the Rules of Procedure of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (OJ EPO 2007, 303 ff) in one of the official languages of the EPO (English, French or German).

To ensure that any such statements can be given due consideration they should be filed by the end of September 2014 with the Registry of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, quoting case number G 2/14.

Each statement should also be accompanied by a list of cited documents and copies on paper or, preferably, CD/DVD of any such documents not previously filed.