8.3.5 Case law concerning oral proceedings held during the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to G 1/21
The board in T 762/21 noted that there were cases, as the one in hand, in which oral proceedings could be more efficiently conducted in person than by videoconference. In the case in hand, however, the board saw – as submitted by the respondent by reference to G 1/21 – no procedural deficiency in the fact that the oral proceedings before the opposition division had been conducted by videoconference. In particular, the appellant's submission that they had not been allowed to share their screen in order to show a PowerPoint presentation would not amount to a procedural deficiency that could be attributed to the oral proceedings being held by videoconference. The same would have happened if the oral proceedings had been conducted in person and the appellant had tried to present arguments on the basis of the mentioned PowerPoint presentation which had not been announced nor submitted in writing in advance.
In T 2011/21 the appellant (opponent) contested the decision of the opposition division to hold oral proceedings and carry out the inspection of the child safety seat "Sirona" per videoconference. The board considered that the opposition division had erred in not granting the opponent's request to take evidence by inspection in presence. The opponent's request had been substantiated and was, in the board's view, well-founded, in particular because the object to be inspected was a complex three-dimensional item and it could not a priori be ruled out that the images on the screen would allow the participants to appreciate the full extent of the disclosure. This error, however, did not constitute a substantial procedural violation because the decision of the opposition division to consider the subject-matter of independent claim 1 of the patent as maintained novel in view of the prior use "Sirona" had actually been neither determined nor influenced to the detriment of the appellant (opponent) by the fact that the inspection had taken place by videoconference.