T 0798/93 (Identification of real opponent) vom 20.06.1996

1. Article 99(1) EPC, which enables "any person" to institute opposition proceedings, establishes the presumption that the real opponent is the person who has lodged the opposition. The EPC and its attendant provisions make no stipulation as to the opponent's personal circumstances or motives for acting.

Requests that the opposition be declared inadmissible must therefore be refused if, as in the present case, they are based on objections regarding the opponent's personal circumstances, for example his profession (a professional representative before the EPO) or his field of technical expertise (different from that of the patent forming the subject of the opposition), or on objections concerning the opponent's motives for acting (statement by the opponent explaining that his only reason for acting was to supplement his professional training).

2. The presumption established by Article 99(1) EPC can only be set aside if proof is furnished, during the proceedings, that a third party has claimed to be the real opponent. In this event, to uphold the principle established by board of appeal jurisprudence that "oppositions must be filed and pursued ... so as to avoid ... uncertainty", the "person" in whose name the opposition was filed may be asked to assist in dispelling the doubt (see T 635/88).