Minutes must contain the essentials of the oral proceedings and the relevant statements made by the parties.

Relevant statements are, for example, new or amended procedural submissions or the withdrawal thereof, the fresh submission or amendment or withdrawal of application documents, such as claims, description and drawings, and statements of surrender.

The essentials of the oral proceedings include new statements by the party or parties and by the member or members of the department concerning the subject-matter of the proceedings. In examination and opposition proceedings, the essentials are principally new statements arguing the presence or lack of novelty, inventive step and other patentability criteria.

If in the course of the procedure prior to oral proceedings the department has delivered an opinion - e.g. on patentability - and changes this opinion in response to arguments put forward by the parties, e.g. following the deliberations of the Examining or Opposition Division, this must be mentioned in the minutes, with a statement of the reasons for doing so. The minutes should also contain procedural information, such as how the proceedings are to be continued after closure of the oral proceedings.

If a decision is given, the wording of the operative part must be reproduced in the minutes.

If the exact wording of a statement or submission is not of importance, only a concise summary of the essentials should appear in the minutes.

The minutes with the result reached during the proceedings are communicated to the parties as soon as possible.