| European Case Law Identifier: | ECLI:EP:BA:1998:T028494.19981125 | ||||||||
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| Date of decision: | 25 November 1998 | ||||||||
| Case number: | T 0284/94 | ||||||||
| Application number: | 85110444.8 | ||||||||
| IPC class: | G07B 17/00 | ||||||||
| Language of proceedings: | EN | ||||||||
| Distribution: | A | ||||||||
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| Title of application: | Thermal mechanism for printing fixed and variable information and postage meter having such a mechanism | ||||||||
| Applicant name: | Pitney Bowes Inc. | ||||||||
| Opponent name: | Neopost Ltd. | ||||||||
| Board: | 3.4.01 | ||||||||
| Headnote: | I. An amendment of a claim by the introduction of a technical feature taken in isolation from the description of a specific embodiment is not allowable under Article 123(2) EPC if it is not clear beyond any doubt for a skilled reader from the application documents as filed that the subject-matter of the claim thus amended provides a complete solution to a technical problem unambiguously recognizable from the application. II. Nor is an amendment allowable under Article 123(2) EPC which replaces a disclosed specific feature either by its function or by a more general term and thus incorporates undisclosed equivalents into the content of the application as filed. |
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| Keywords: | Amendment (not allowable) of European patent application: limitation of claims by introduction of technical features selected from the description of an embodiment Inadmissible generalizations (main first auxiliary and second auxiliary requests) Inventive step (yes) (third auxiliary request) |
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Source: http://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/recent/t940284ex1.html
Date retrieved: 17 May 2021
22 references found.
Click X to load a reference inside the current page, click on the title to open in a new page.Offical Journal of the EPO
XOJ EPO SE 1/2021, p179 - Annex 1 - Index of published decisions of the boards of appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal - (as at 31 December 2020)
XOJ EPO SE 1/2020, p174 - Annex 1 - Index of published decisions of the boards of appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal - (as at 31 December 2019)
XOJ EPO SE 1/2019, p158 - XVI. - Index of published decisions of the boards of appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal - (as at 31 December 2018)
Case Law Book: II Conditions to be met by an Application
XCLR II E 1.8.1 Replacing specific feature with more general term – no inclusion of undisclosed equivalents