Oral Proceedings Scheduled for the Enlarged Board of Appeal Case G 1/24 Regarding Use of the Description When Interpreting the Claims

The Board of Appeal in T 0439/22 referred questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal in order to clarify the extent to which the description should be referred to when interpreting the claims. The case is pending as G 1/24 and in-person oral proceedings have now been scheduled for 28 March 2025.

The questions referred by the Board of Appeal are as follows:

1. Is Article 69(1), second sentence EPC and Article 1 of the Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC to be applied on the interpretation of patent claims when assessing the patentability of an invention under Articles 52 to 57 EPC?
2. May the description and figures be consulted when interpreting the claims to assess patentability and, if so, may this be done generally or only if the person skilled in the art finds a claim to be unclear or ambiguous when read in isolation?
3. May a definition or similar information on a term used in the claims which is explicitly given in the description be disregarded when interpreting the claims to assess patentability and, if so, under what conditions?

Members of the public can watch the oral proceedings via a livestream. A link to the livestream will be published here on 21 March 2025.