Monday, November 16, 2020 User consultation on insertion of new Article 15a (oral proceedings by videoconference) in the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA 2020)

The EPO's Boards of Appeal Committee (BOAC) and the President of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO have invited users to take part in the consultation on proposed new Article 15a RPBA. The proposed article is available in the English version. The consultation can be found here.

This online consultation will remain open until 12.00 hrs CET on 27 November 2020.

The proposed text reads:

Article 15a Oral proceedings by videoconference

(1) The Board may decide to hold oral proceedings pursuant to Article 116 EPC by videoconference if the Board considers it appropriate to do so, either upon request by a party or of its own motion.

(2) Where oral proceedings are scheduled to be held in person, the Chair may allow a party, representative or accompanying person to attend by videoconference. In exceptional circumstances, the Chair may decide that a party, representative or accompanying person shall attend by videoconference.

(3) The Chair may allow any member of the Board in the particular appeal to participate by videoconference. 

Par. (1) thus provides that oral proceedings may be held by videoconference.

Par. (2) implicitly provides that oral proceedings may be held in person; par (2) explicitly provides for hybrid oral proceedings where  a party, representative or accompanying person may (voluntarily) or shall (mandatorily) attend in oral proceedings held in person.

Par. (3) provides that any member of the Board, also the Chair, may participate by videoconference; implicitly, it provides that any Board member may participate by videoconference in oral proceedings by video conference as well as in hybrid oral proceeding as well as in oral proceedings where all parties, representatives and accompanying persons and (presumably) some -but not all- Board members attend in person.

The text of the proposed new provision and some explanatory remarks are set out in the document that is available from the Download menu in the original message. 

The text of the invitation on the webpage is duplicated below in its entirety (emphasis added).

Tuesday, July 14, 2020 T 1378/16 - Oral proceedings before the Board held by videoconference

The oral proceedings in the present case took place on 8 May 2020 and were the first held by videoconference in the history of the Boards of the Appeal of the EPO. Unlike some national legal systems, the EPC does not stipulate explicitly the form(s) in which oral proceedings under Article 116 EPC shall take place. For these reasons, the Board considers it appropriate to address briefly the legal basis for oral proceedings within the meaning of Article 116 EPC.

Friday, November 13, 2015 T 2068/14: a right to oral proceedings by video conferencing?

AT&T picturephone

During the examination and during the appeal procedure, the appellant (applicant) requested oral proceedings held by video conferencing. The examining division refused oral proceeding by video conferencing. In the appeal procedure, the appellant argues that refusing the oral proceeding by video conferencing is a substantial procedural violation. Not long before the scheduled oral proceedings of the appeal procedure, the appellant requested a re-scheduling of the oral proceedings of the appeal procedure and requested oral proceedings to be held by video conferencing. Also, with respect to "does the applicant have the right to oral proceedings by video conferencing", the appellant requested a referral of three questions to the Enlarged Boards of Appeal. It seems that the appellant finds it unfair that applicants who have appointed a professional representative who is not located close to Munich or The Hague have to bear higher costs for attending the oral proceedings. This decision of the Board discusses whether (and why) one has (or has not) the right to oral proceedings by video conferencing.