State of the art, Inventive step, Enlarged Board of Appeal, Reproducibility and sufficiency of disclosure, EPC

In this decision, the Board of Appeal addresses the implications of the landmark decision G 1/23 of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. The Enlarged Board's decision does not exclude the selection of a product that is commercially available but not reproducible by third parties as the closest state of the art. The extent to which such a product must be modified and the knowledge required for this are not relevant for its selection as the closest state of the art. Rather, these aspects are only to be considered at later stages of the problem-solution approach, such as when identifying distinguishing features or assessing obviousness. (EPO-BoA 24.09.2025, T 1044/23)