D 0011/91 (Return of documents) vom 18.05.1993

1. Documents whose legitimate origin is in serious doubt may without any investigation as to whether such doubts are justified be excluded from the proceedings if they did not serve as the basis for charges against the appellant or if copies of incontestably legitimate origin remain on file. Documents excluded by interlocutory decision - unlike returned items - are not however thereby removed from the Board's investigatory purview.

2. Professional secrecy under Article 2 of the Regulation on discipline for professional representatives (RDR) sets limits to the disciplinary bodies' powers of investigation and to the obligation under Article 18 RDR that a professional representative supply all relevant information. However, confidentiality obligations deriving from a principle enshrined in Part I RDR cannot be invoked to resist a request under Article 18 RDR.

3. Under the powers conferred on it by Article 25 RDR and Article 117 EPC, the Disciplinary Board of Appeal can require EPO departments to produce files - in the present case, a terminated opposition dossier - likely to contain documents helpful to its own investigation.