which, "when (...) closing the debate, the Chairman [of the Board] indicated that the Board would decide on patentability". Inventive step had, however, not been discussed. Nevertheless, the Board then decided that the main request did not comply with (inventive step), depriving the petitioner (the patent proprietor) from an opportunity to be heard on inventive step of the main request. The Enlarged Board considered this to be a violation of the petitioner right's to be heard, which arose from a misunderstanding between the Board and the petitioner. The Board apparently thought, when closing the debate, that the parties did not wish to make any submission orally on inventive step (beyond the parties' written submissions), whereas the petitioner apparently thought that they still would have an opportunity to present their arguments in that respect. The Enlarged Board set aside the decision of the Board to give an opportunity to the petitioner to be heard on inventive step. R 21/11 of 15 June 2012 R 15/11 of 13 May 2013 R 16/13 of 8 December 2014 R 2/14 of 22 April 2016 R 2/14 concerned decision T 1627/09 where Board 3.3.08 had held that the patent under consideration violated Articles 83 and 100(b) EPC because, even though each of the steps of recloning could be performed by a skilled person, the combination of all the necessary steps created an undue burden on the skilled person trying to perform the invention. The Enlarged Board held that the decision under review did not mention the sequence of facts or arguments that had led the Board to the conclusion that the combination of steps imposed an undue burden on the skilled person. The petition for review was consequently held allowable. R 3/15 of 28 November 2017 R 4/17 of 29 January 2018 R 5/19 of 15 March 2021 See also List of decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office References External links Enlarged Board of Appeal at the EPO, including a section on the "Petitions for review under Art. 112a EPC" Case law of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office