In a decision of November 14, 2013 which has just been published, a Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (J 0014/11) had to decide on an appeal against the decision of an Examining Division to continue the patent prosecution despite the fact that there was at a German Court an action pending concerning the inventorship and the right to the patent. The Board of Appeal concluded that the Examining Division has discretionary authority to decide on the question of how long the proceedings should be stayed. The application of this discretion by the Examining Division can only be controlled in a limited way by the Board of Appeal. However, new facts namely new developments in the national court proceedings concerning inventorship have to be taken into consideration even at Appeal Board level.