3.3.1 Decisions to be signed

R. 113(1) EPC says that decisions, summonses, notices and communications from the EPO must be signed by, and state the name of, the employee responsible. If a document referred to in R. 113(1) EPC is produced by the employee responsible using a computer, the EPO seal may replace the signature. If it is produced automatically by a computer, the employee's name may also be dispensed with (R. 113(2) EPC).

In T 390/86 the board decided that if the decision of a particular division was to be legally valid it had to bear the signatures of the members who had been appointed to that division to decide the issue.

Referring inter alia to J 16/17 and T 390/86, the board in T 572/19 held that the jurisprudence of the boards of appeal indicated that the written decision, including the substantiation, was the object of the signature requirement. There was, then, no doubt that the signature requirement under R. 113(1) EPC applied to the written decision, including the substantiation, and not only to the outcome that might be announced during oral proceedings.