1. Ein Dritter im Sinne von Artikel 115 EPÜ, der gegen die Entscheidung über die Erteilung eines europäischen Patents Beschwerde eingelegt hat, hat keinen Anspruch darauf, dass vor einer Beschwerdekammer des Europäischen Patentamtes mündlich über sein Begehren verhandelt wird, zur Beseitigung vermeintlich undeutlicher Patentansprüche (Artikel 84 EPÜ) des europäischen Patents den erneuten Eintritt in das Prüfungsverfahren anzuordnen. Eine solchermaßen eingelegte Beschwerde entfaltet keine aufschiebende Wirkung.

2. Mündliche Verhandlungen der Beschwerdekammern an deren Standort in Haar verstoßen nicht gegen die Artikel 113 (1) und 116 (1) EPÜ.

In G 2/19 the Enlarged Board of Appeal decided that the first referred question was inadmissible and, as a result, reworded the second and third referred questions as follows: 2. Is the right to oral proceedings under Art. 116 EPC before a board of appeal limited where a third party within the meaning of Art. 115 EPC files an "appeal" against the grant of a patent, relying on the argument that there is no alternative legal remedy under the EPC against the examining division's decision to disregard its observations concerning an alleged infringement of Art. 84 EPC? 3. Can a board of appeal hold oral proceedings in Haar without infringing Art. 113(1) and 116(1) EPC if it has been requested that they be held in Munich instead? As regards question 2, the Enlarged Board observed that Art. 116(1), first sentence, EPC provided very generally that oral proceedings were to take place if so requested by any party to the proceedings. The referring board had assumed that a third party's filing of an appeal had made it a party to the appeal proceedings and that it was therefore entitled to require that oral proceedings be held (T 831/17). The Enlarged Board considered this view too simplistic in that it took this involvement in appeal proceedings as the sole basis for establishing the required party status. On a reasonable interpretation, however, Art. 116(1), first sentence, EPC did not dictate such an automatic procedural outcome but rather allowed for exceptions. Given the variety in the scope of that provision's application, its nature could not be considered so, as it were, absolute. The legislator had clearly intended it to serve as a basic rule governing the typical cases facing EPO departments in their everyday practice but it could not be ruled out that exceptions to this basic rule might be made where its application would make no sense in the specific circumstances of an individual case. Instead, Art. 116(1), first sentence, EPC was to be interpreted narrowly, such that a purely formal position as de facto party to appeal proceedings was not enough to confer a right to require that oral proceedings be held if the person requesting them had no standing to appeal, because they had not been a party to the foregoing proceedings in the legal sense, or if the grievance they invoked was not appealable. As regards question 3, the Enlarged Board observed that the fact that the boards currently performed their judicial function in Haar was the result of organisational acts adopted and implemented by the mandated organs of the European Patent Organisation in exercise of their powers. As to the objection that the boards' move to Haar had been contrary to the EPC's provisions and so to a certain extent unlawful, it found that this did not per se fall within the boards' jurisdiction. Their duty under the EPC was to contribute to performance of the EPO's task of granting patents (Art. 4(3) EPC) by exercising judicial powers (Art. 23 EPC). That did not include, at least not directly, reviewing an organisational matter such as whether choosing to locate the boards in Haar was in keeping with the objective institutional provisions of the EPC. At best, such a matter could be reviewed in appeal proceedings under Art. 106 et seq. EPC in the context of whether the boards' move to Haar was liable to impair the protected or protectable subjective standing of a party to proceedings to exercise its rights before them. That was not in issue here, however. The Enlarged Board held: 1. A third party within the meaning of Art. 115 EPC who has filed an appeal against a decision to grant a European patent has no right to have its request for an order that examination proceedings in respect of the European patent be reopened for the purpose of removing allegedly unclear claims (Art. 84 EPC) heard at oral proceedings before an EPO board of appeal. An appeal filed in such a way has no suspensive effect. 2. Oral proceedings before the boards of appeal at their site in Haar do not infringe Art. 113(1) and 116(1) EPC.