Insufficiency resulting from mutually exclusivity definitions: The repercussive effect of dependent claims (T 0878/23)

Since G1/24 we have become used to the debate of how much the definitions in the description may influence the claims. The recent Board of Appeal decision in T 0878/23 highlights how contradictions in the claims themselves may be enough to invalidate a patent for insufficiency. The case involved a Nestlé patent on probiotics, where the claims contained mutually exclusive definitions of