Chapter I – Common provisions governing procedure
(1) Oral proceedings shall take place either at the instance of the European Patent Office if it considers this to be expedient or at the request of any party to the proceedings. However, the European Patent Office may reject a request for further oral proceedings before the same department where the parties and the subject of the proceedings are the same.
(2) Nevertheless, oral proceedings shall take place before the Receiving Section at the request of the applicant only where the Receiving Section considers this to be expedient or where it intends to refuse the European patent application.
(3) Oral proceedings before the Receiving Section, the Examining Divisions and the Legal Division shall not be public.
(4) Oral proceedings, including delivery of the decision, shall be public, as regards the Boards of Appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal, after publication of the European patent application, and also before the Opposition Divisions, in so far as the department before which the proceedings are taking place does not decide otherwise in cases where admission of the public could have serious and unjustified disadvantages, in particular for a party to the proceedings.
134See decisions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal G 2/94, G 4/95 (Annex I).
135See decision of the President of the EPO of 22.11.2022 concerning the format of oral proceedings before examining and opposition divisions, the Legal Division and the Receiving Section (OJ EPO 2022, A103).
See notice from the EPO of 22.11.2022 concerning oral proceedings by videoconference before examining and opposition divisions, the Legal Division and the Receiving Section, as well as consultations by videoconference before examining divisions (OJ EPO 2022, A106).
See decision of the President of the EPO and notice from the EPO of 17.12.2020 concerning oral proceedings by videoconference before examining divisions (OJ EPO 2020, A134 and A135).
See decision of the President of the EPO and notice from the EPO of 10.11.2020 concerning the modification and extension of the pilot project for oral proceedings by videoconference before opposition divisions (OJ EPO 2020, A121, A122 and A135), decisions of the President of the EPO of 14.05.2021 (OJ EPO 2021, A41), of 23.11.2021 (OJ EPO 2021, A93) and of 04.04.2022 (OJ EPO 2022, A43).
See decision of the President of the EPO of 09.06.2021 concerning oral proceedings by videoconference before the Receiving Section (OJ EPO 2021, A49).
See decision of the President of the EPO of 09.06.2021 concerning oral proceedings by videoconference before the Legal Division (OJ EPO 2021, A50).
See notices of the Vice-President DG 3 (Special edition No. 3 OJ EPO 2007, H.1, H.2 and H.3; OJ EPO 2014, A21).See information from the Boards of Appeal (supplementary publication 1, OJ EPO 2024, VII.3, VII.4, VII.5).