EPO Board of Appeals

Art. 15a RPBA grants the Board the discretion to hold oral proceedings under Art. 116 EPC by videoconference if it considers this appropriate. This scope of application is general and not limited to pandemic situations. The Board exercises its discretion taking into account the specific circumstances of the case and the reasons put forward by the parties for or against the format of the proceedings, in particular if a party demonstrates why a videoconference would be unsuitable in the specific case or why they would be disadvantaged by it (EPO BoA 20.03.2025, T 745/23, preventing bacterial infection in fermentation/KEMIRA).