"The European Patent Office has announced that it will now establish the practice of oral proceedings via videoconference, which was already envisaged at the beginning of the pandemic, as a new standard. In the future, every oral hearing before the examining divisions, opposition divisions, legal division, and the Receiving Section will therefore be held by video conference as a standard. However, oral proceedings may still be held on site if this is requested and if there are serious reasons against holding them by video conference. Oral proceedings before the Boards of Appeal of the EPO are also not affected by this rule for the time being.

We are pleased to be able to continue to conduct hearings before the European Patent Office by videoconference from our offices in the future.

For more information, please visit the EPO website."