On November 11, 2008, the Enlarged Board of Appeal decided to announce in the Official Journal of the EPO "further provisions concerning statements by third parties on the points of law concerning the patentability of programs for computers referred to it by the President of the European Patent Office". The expected announcement was made in the Official Journal of January 2009. Namely, any written statements, i.e. amicus curiae briefs, had to be filed by the end of April 2009. Around a hundred amicus curiae briefs have been submitted, including briefs by Accenture, the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI), Apple Inc., BT, BUSINESSEUROPE, Canonical Group Ltd, the Computer & Communication Industry Association (CCIA), Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), DIGITALEUROPE, Ericsson, the European Patent Institute (epi), the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI), France Télécom, IBM, the Irish Free Software Organisation (IFSO), ITechLaw, the Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA), Prof. Donald Knuth, Licensing Executives Society International (LESI), Microsoft Corporation and General Electric Company, Philips, the Pirate Party, Pitney Bowes, the Polish Patent Office, Red Hat, SAP, Siemens, Prof. Joseph Straus, the UNION of European Practitioners in Industrial Property, and the United Kingdom. Reception to the referral and further developments According to the New York Times, the referral had been welcomed "by lawyers and software engineers alike". After the referral, the England and Wales Court of Appeal did not give the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) leave to appeal to the House of Lords regarding the Symbian's Patent Application case, "because in its view it would be premature for the House of Lords to decide what computer programs are patentable before the issue has been considered by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the [EPO]." Interlocutory decision of 16 October 2009 In an interlocutory decision of 16 October 2009, the Enlarged Board of Appeal dealt with an objection of partiality raised in an amicus brief. The objection of partiality was against a particular member of the Board, Dai Rees, and against the Board as a whole. The Enlarged Board of Appeal concluded that there was "no reason to exclude Mr Rees from its composition in case G 3/08 or to replace further members." The