EPO case law: NDA for experts is irrelevant

The appalent's request not to admit the declaration of an expert, since the latter is bound by an NDA and is therefore not entitled to make statements on the experiments he made, cannot be granted: In order to comply with that request, the Board of Appeal would have to examine the content and validity of the agreement between the expert and the appellant or examine whether the unilateral termination of the agreement by the expert was valid or not. However, these questions are reserved for the competent national judge and cannot be answered by the Board of Appeal. In the event of a breach of contract by the expert, the appellant could bring the matter before the competent national courts and claim damages, but the existence of such a breach is irrelevant for the proceedings before the Board of Appeal (EPO BoA 13 December 2018, T 1727/14).