6.1.2 Request for changing the date of oral proceedings

Parties can request a change of date of oral proceedings. For as long as a request for postponement of oral proceedings has not been granted, the requesting party cannot simply assume that it will be. The party has to consider the possibility of a refusal of the request and has to prepare the case accordingly to minimise the risk of time pressure (T 1102/03, T 2526/11).

According to the above-mentioned notices, a change in the date of oral proceedings can only be requested in case of "serious reasons" justifying the fixing of a new date, see point 2 of the 2007 Notice (boards of appeal) and point 2.1 of the 2008 Notice (departments of first instance); the case law on grounds for postponement is summarised in chapter III.C.6.1.4. The request must be filed as soon as possible after the grounds preventing the party concerned from attending the oral proceedings have arisen, and must be accompanied by a sufficiently substantiated written statement indicating these reasons.

Where a request for postponement of oral proceedings is refused on the ground that the request was not sufficiently substantiated, the decision of the examining division should state in clear terms what should have been submitted or explained (T 447/13).

The decision to change the date for oral proceedings is a discretionary one (concerning the departments of first instance see T 1505/06, T 2526/11, T 447/13; concerning the boards of appeal, see Art. 15(2) RPBA 2007). It is inherent from the discretionary nature of the decision whether to change (or not) a date for oral proceedings that a request will not succeed simply because the reasons for it fall within the examples of acceptable reasons in the 2007 Notice (T 699/06, T 861/12).

For the question of whether a request for postponement of oral proceedings can lead to a different apportionment of costs under Art. 104 EPC, see chapter III.R.2.2. "Acts or omissions prejudicing the timely and efficient conduct of oral proceedings".