Section 1 – General matters
Rule 119
Allocation of duties to the departments of first instance
(1) Technically qualified examiners acting as members of Search, Examining or Opposition Divisions shall be assigned to Directorates. The President of the European Patent Office shall allocate duties to these Directorates by reference to the international classification.
(2)10 The President of the European Patent Office may allocate further duties to the Receiving Section, the Search, Examining and Opposition Divisions, and the Legal Division, in addition to the responsibilities vested in them under the Convention.
(3)11 The President of the European Patent Office may entrust to employees who are not technically or legally qualified examiners the execution of duties falling to the Search, Examining or Opposition Divisions and involving no technical or legal difficulties.
9See opinion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal G 1/02 (Annex I).
10See decision of the President of the EPO (OJ EPO 2013, 600).
11See decisions of the President of the EPO concerning the entrustment to non-examining staff of certain duties incumbent on the examining or opposition divisions (OJ EPO 2014, A6, OJ EPO 2015, A104, and OJ EPO 2020, A80) and notice from the EPO (OJ EPO 2014, A32).