When evaluating submissions made, the difference between facts, evidence and arguments must be observed.

The opponent asserts that the preamble to claim 1 is described in document A, the characterising portion in document B (facts). To prove this, documents are submitted (evidence). The opponent then contends that the method claimed does not involve an inventive step, because the skilled person, on the basis of common general knowledge, would have combined the submitted documents in such a way as to arrive at the subject-matter of claim 1 (argument).

Evidence admissible in EPO proceedings is not confined to that listed in Art. 117(1). "Taking of evidence" within the meaning of Art. 117 comprises the submission or gathering of evidence of any kind, particularly the filing of documents.

Pure arguments are not evidence (see T 642/92).