8.7.1 General principles 

As a rule, the requirement in Art. 2(7) of the decision of the President of the EPO dated 25 November 2022 that the description, claims and abstract and the request for grant must be typed or printed also applies to documents replacing application documents and to amended patent specification documents (see also A‑III, 3.2).

Responsibility for formally correct submissions and, in particular, for compliance with these requirements lies with the applicant/proprietor.

Deletions, corrections of the numbering of the figures and insertions of reference numbers and associated arrows in drawings are considered typewritten amendments.

If the oral proceedings are held exceptionally on the EPO premises, the parties may use the EPO's technical facilities that allow for compliance with the formal requirements, in particular computers equipped with a word processor and a printer, network printers and copiers enabling documents to be printed from a USB stick, and internet access in public areas via a public wireless network (see OJ EPO 2013, 603).

It is recommended that parties prepare electronic copies of documents likely to be amended. Published patent applications and specifications are available via the European publication server. See D‑IV, 5.3 for the preferred way to amend the description in opposition proceedings.

For the procedures in examination and opposition oral proceedings, see E‑III, 8.7.2 and E-III, 8.7.3 respectively.