8.3 Opening of oral proceedings; non-appearance of a party
8.3.1 Checking the identity and authorisations of participants at oral proceedings
The division will check the ID document of one representative or authorised employee of each party unless this person is personally known. For other representatives, authorised employees and accompanying persons (including those who will be making oral submissions, see E‑III, 8.5) present for a given party, it is sufficient that their identity is confirmed orally by the person whose ID document was checked or who is personally known to at least one member of the division. This applies regardless of whether a representative is a professional representative or a legal practitioner. Equally, if a party is not represented but personally present together with an accompanying person, it is sufficient to check the ID document of that party.
However, the division checks the ID documents of all parties, witnesses and experts summoned to give evidence before the EPO. Moreover, the division may check ID documents of other attendees where this is considered necessary, e.g. because the identity of an accompanying person is challenged by another party or where the division itself has serious doubts about the person's identity.
The ID document may be presented in one of the following ways:
– If it is an EPO badge, by showing it to the camera at the beginning of the videoconference in the public meeting room.
– If it is a national ID card or passport, by showing it to a member of the division in a separate non-public meeting room.
– By sending a copy to the email address provided to the parties at the beginning of the oral proceedings.
– By using the EPO online filing options up to two days prior to the oral proceedings.
For data protection reasons, copies of ID documents sent by email are deleted and not included in the file; copies submitted via the EPO online filing options are placed in the non-public part of the file.
In order for the division to be able to confirm the identity of the person concerned, their full name (first and last name) and photograph should be visible. All the other information on the ID document can be kept hidden if so wished, as long as it is possible to recognise it as an official ID document.
Professional representatives and legal practitioners need to file authorisations only in exceptional cases (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 7 July 20258 July 2024, OJ EPO 20242025, A75A45).
Authorisations need be checked only if a party is represented by a person whose authorisation is not apparent from the file. If it is established that the person is:
(i)a professional representative or legal practitioner acting under a sub-authorisation
(ii)a professional representative or legal practitioner from the same association or law firm as the representative acting in the case or
(iii)a natural person (e.g. executive director) authorised by law in the party's country of business to act on behalf of that party,
then no further check is required.
If, however, the person is:
(a)a professional representative or legal practitioner who is neither from the same association or law firm nor acting under a sub-authorisation, and their attendance at the oral proceedings is their first appearance in the proceedings, or
(b)a party's employee who is not an authorised professional representative or legal practitioner,
then the procedure is as follows:
In case (a), the division will check the file to see whether the previous representative's authorisation has lapsed. A change in representative or the termination of the authorisation of a previous representative may have been communicated electronically via MyEPO (see OJ EPO 2024, A43 and OJ EPO 2024, A44). If the previous representative's authorisation has lapsed, no further action is required. If not, the representative concerned will be requestedasked to fileprovide a reference to aregistered g general authorisation (see A‑VIII, 1.87) or individual authorisation (see A‑VIII, 1.7)to file an individual authorisation.
In case (b), the division will ask the person concerned to provide a reference to a registered general authorisation or to file – by email in the case of oral proceedings by videoconference (OJ EPO 2020, A71) – an individual authorisation.
Any person without an authorisation will be asked to submit one without delay (see A‑VIII, 1.10). If they cannot do so straight away, a time limit of two months will be set. The fact that the authorisation was missing, and any time limit set for submitting it, must be recorded in the minutes. The oral proceedings then continue as normal, except that no decision can be pronounced at the end. Instead, the decision is issued in writing once the missing authorisation has been submitted. At the end of the oral proceedings, the party concerned must be reminded to submit the authorisation.