{"id":3912,"date":"2016-01-14T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/lack-of-clarity-of-technical-standards-t-1888-12-wabco\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T14:42:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:42:35","slug":"lack-of-clarity-of-technical-standards-t-1888-12-wabco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/lack-of-clarity-of-technical-standards-t-1888-12-wabco\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of clarity of technical standards (T 1888\/12 – WABCO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The European Patent Office examines claims not only for novelty and inventive step, but also for clarity. This requirement in particular has become increasingly important in recent years. Patents are being rejected more and more frequently due to a lack of clarity. It is not always clear what is “clear”. For example, is an ISO standard clear? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In a recent decision (T 1888\/12), the Board of Appeal confirmed its earlier jurisprudence (T0783\/05) according to which the citation of, for example, an ISO or DIN standard is generally not clear.<\/p>\n\n

Decision T 1888\/12 concerned an “adapter” for coupling a trailer to a towing vehicle. The invention lay in the fact that, in addition to a proprietary connection to the control unit of the towing vehicle, the adapter also had two other ISO-standardized connections. The disputed part of the claim read as follows: <\/p>\n\n

“….a second adapter connection in accordance with the ISO 7638 standard and a third adapter connection in accordance with the ISO 12098 standard”<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The Board of Appeal rejects this claim because the technical characteristics are not clear. The date of the standard is missing. There is also no reference to the relevant date of the standard in the description. According to the Board of Appeal, it cannot be ruled out that the standard in question may change over time (in particular during the term of the patent). The patent applicant has also not proven that this particular standard has not undergone any substantial changes. <\/p>\n\n

The Board of Appeal is not convinced by the applicant’s argument, namely that the standard in the version at the priority date of the Application is relevant, because nothing to this effect was mentioned in the Application.<\/p>\n\n

The earlier decision T 0783\/05, to which the new decision explicitly refers, concerned a<\/p>\n\n

“Mineral fiber product that meets the non-combustibility requirements of DIN 4102 A1”<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Even then, the claim had been rejected as unclear because reference had been made to a DIN standard 4102 A1 of indeterminate date. The Board of Appeal said: <\/p>\n\n

“Experience shows that such standards are revised over time, i.e. possibly even during the period of validity of the patent in dispute, possibly even several times, whereby substantial changes cannot be ruled out. Opponent O2, a party to the proceedings, has argued without contradiction that DIN 4102 was last modified in 2004. Appellant I’s argument that the date of the patent in suit should be taken into account when considering the DIN standard is not convincing, as the description contains no such reference.”<\/p>\n\n

These decisions show that a reference to a standard that is clear at first glance does not automatically fulfill the clarity requirement. If the relevant version date is not indicated in the description, the claim cannot normally be based on technical standards. The exceptional case in which it can be shown that a standard does not change and that the dateless reference is therefore clear should rarely come into play. <\/p>\n\n

Left: www.epo.org\/law-practice\/case-law-appeals\/pdf\/t121888du1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Patent Office examines claims not only for novelty and inventive step, but also for clarity. This requirement in particular has become increasingly important in recent years. Patents are being rejected more and more frequently due to a lack of clarity. It is not always clear what is “clear”. For example, is an ISO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nicht-kategorisiert"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}