In a decision of September 29, 2011, the Enlarged Board of Appeal has accepted a request for review of a decision of the Technical Board of Appeal according to Article 112a EPC and has referred the case back to the Technical Board of Appeal. The Technical Board of Appeal has at the same time decided about novelty and inventive step without informing the parties in a sufficiently clear manner about this handling of the matter. The Enlarged Board of Appeal saw this as a violation of Article 113 EPC which provides that decisions of the European Patent Office can only be founded on reasons the parties have had a chance to comment upon.