3.10.4 Procedural efficiency

Petition for review proceedings should by their nature be dealt with as speedily as possible, acceleration requests are therefore unnecessary (R 18/09, R 15/13). In R 11/12 the board also stated that petitions for review should, in the interest of legal certainty, be dealt with expeditiously, and did not consider a planned birthday party a reason justifying the fixing of a new date for oral proceedings before the Enlarged Board.

In R 5/08 the Enlarged Board noted that R. 109(1) EPC provides that certain specific procedural time limits do not apply to petition for review proceedings and stated that this allowed the Enlarged Board to shorten these time periods in the interest of procedural efficiency. However, it clearly provides no justification for parties to disregard time limits set by the Enlarged Board itself.