8.1 Admission of the public to proceedings 

Oral proceedings before the Receiving Section, the examining divisions and the Legal Division are not public.

Oral proceedings before the opposition divisions, including delivery of the decision (see E‑III, 9), are public unless the opposition division decides otherwise in cases where admitting the public could have serious and unjustified disadvantages, in particular for a party to the proceedings. This could, for example, be the case if any of the parties wishes to give information about sales figures or other commercial secrets in support of their case. Generally, the public will only be excluded while this information is being given. The public is also excluded during discussions about a request for exclusion of a document from file inspection (see D‑II, 4.3) and when a decision on this matter is pronounced. The parties that did not make the request, as well as their representatives, may also be excluded as part of the public (e.g. where exclusion of a medical certificate from file inspection is requested).

Members of the public may be granted remote access to opposition oral proceedings via a link provided at their request. See OJ EPO 2022, A106, for details about making a request and the applicable conditions.