The G1/ 21 decision: first impressions

The European Patent Office’s (EPO) highest judicial body, the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA), has released its order in the case G1/21. The EBoA had been asked to rule on the legality of the use of videoconferences in EPO oral proceedings before the boards of appeal, where not all the parties had consented to it.

The EBoA’s order reads as follows: “During a general emergency impairing the parties’ possibilities to attend in-person oral proceedings at the EPO premises, the conduct of oral proceedings before the boards of appeal in the form of a videoconference is compatible with the European Patent Convention even if not all of the parties to the proceedings have given their consent to the conduct of oral proceedings in the form of a videoconference.”