EPO case-law: No "last chance" for the patentee at the oral hearing

Pursuant to Art. 13 RPBA, it is at the discretion of the BoA whether auxiliary requests are admitted to the proceedings after the statement of grounds of appeal or after the reply. Since, in the preliminary opinion which it enclosed with the summons to the oral hearing, the BoA announced its possible reservations with regard to the clarity of the claims pending at that time, the auxiliary request submitted at the oral hearing to remedy the lack of clarity in question is not to be admitted to the proceedings because the patentee had already had the opportunity to file this request at an earlier stage (EPO BoA 21 July 2017, T 0514/14).