3. Request for further oral proceedings 

The EPO may reject a request for further oral proceedings before the same department where the parties and the subject of the proceedings are the same, irrespective of the form in which the oral proceedings were held.

Oral proceedings, particularly in opposition proceedings, are held to give the opportunity to definitively settle all matters raised and are normally terminated with a decision announced orally. The division is bound by that decision, once announced, and it cannot reopen the proceedings to allow further submissions to be filed or to take new facts into account (see the last two paragraphs of E‑VI, 2). New submissions can be examined only if the division did not announce a decision at the oral proceedings but instead decided to continue the proceedings in writing. That may be the case e.g. when the examining division indicates that it intends to grant a patent (or to limit a granted patent in limitation proceedings) on the basis of the documents filed during the oral proceedings.

This means that, in examination, limitation or opposition proceedings, there will normally be no justification for further oral proceedings where, for example, one of the parties wishes to revisit a subject a matter already discussed, either before or during the original oral proceedings, from a different point of view. However, if the oral proceedings are not terminated by a decision and the subject of the proceedings subsequently changes, for example where fresh evidence is admitted after the original oral proceedings, then further oral proceedings will generally have to be held if requested (see T 194/96).