2. Purpose of oral proceedings

The purpose of oral proceedings is to safeguard a party's right to be heard as well as to settle as far as possible all outstanding questions relevant to the decision.

The Enlarged Board specified in R 3/10 that the purpose of oral proceedings was to allow (i) each party to make an oral presentation of their arguments, (ii) the board to ask each party questions, (iii) the parties to respond to such questions and (iv) the board and the parties to discuss issues, including controversial and perhaps crucial issues.

In T 1790/17 the board underlined that the purpose of oral proceedings was, for the appellant, to better explain their case and, for the board, to understand and clarify points which, perhaps, up to that point were not sufficiently clear. This was particularly relevant in ex parte cases, where besides the applicant (appellant) no other party was involved. If amendments resulting from such discussions were not possible, oral proceedings would be pointless.

In T 247/20 the board stated that oral proceedings form an important part of proceedings before the boards of appeal. Their prominence was underlined by the absolute right of a party to oral proceedings under Art. 116 EPC. They served to allow a discussion of the matters pertinent to the board's decision. Oral proceedings would serve no purpose if the parties were limited to presenting a mere repetition of the arguments put forward in writing. Instead, parties must be allowed to refine their arguments, even to build on them provided they stayed within the framework of the arguments, and the evidence, submitted in a timely fashion in the written proceedings (see also T 747/21).

The board in T 596/22 emphasised that oral proceedings were not a mere appendix to the written proceedings, but the time and place where the parties' arguments were put to the test by direct discussion, by argument and counter-argument.