2.2 Persons participating in the consultation  

The person consulted must be entitled to act for the applicant before the EPO. If the applicant is a natural or legal person having either residence or place of business in a contracting state, consultations may only be conducted with:

(a)the applicant (see A‑VIII, 1.1)

(b)a professional representative (see A‑VIII, 1.1)

(c)a duly authorised employee of the applicant (see A‑VIII, 1.2) or, to the extent defined in Art. 134(8), a legal practitioner (see A‑VIII, 1.4).

Regarding (c), see also A‑VIII, 1.5.

If the applicant is a natural or legal person having neither residence nor place of business in a contracting state, consultations may only be conducted with:

– a professional representative (see A‑VIII, 1.1)

– a legal practitioner (see A‑VIII, 1.4 and A‑VIII, 1.5).

The person entitled to act before the EPO, i.e. one of those listed above, may be accompanied by other persons, such as the inventor, a non-European representative or an employee of the applicant. At the request of the entitled person, such other persons may be allowed to take part in the consultation if their participation is relevant to the proceedings. Where the consultation is held by videoconference, these persons may connect from a different location than the entitled person.

If there is any doubt as to the identity of any of the persons participating in the consultation or if the consulted person so requests, the examiner or formalities officer will check the identity of the person or persons concerned. This can be done by inviting them to show an official identity document to the camera in the case of a videoconference or to send a copy of the document by email. For data protection reasons, the copy of the identity document sent by email will not be included in the file (see also E‑III, 8.3.1).

From the examining division, only the examiner first member dealing with the case will normally be present. However, there is no objection to one or even both of the other members participating in the consultation.

When the inventor or an expert is attending the consultation, it is recommended that the chair of the examining division at least should also attend. However, the applicant or representative does not have the right to demand the presence of additional division members. If a request is made for a consultation with all three members, it will usually be advisable to arrange for the holding of oral proceedings instead.