3.2 Summons to oral proceedings 

If oral proceedings have to be arranged, the parties must be summoned to them as quickly as possible at reasonable notice (see E‑III, 6). If the first action of the opposition division is to summon the parties, the first substantive communication of the opposition division under Art. 101(1) is annexed to the summons to oral proceedings. For the form of oral proceedings, see E‑III, 5, E‑III, 1.2 and E‑III, 1.3.

Together with the summons, the opposition division will draw attention to and in the annexed communication explain the points which in its opinion need to be discussed for the purposes of the decision to be taken; where this has already been done sufficiently in a prior communication, it is appropriate to refer to that communication. Normally, the annexed communication will also contain the provisional and nonbinding opinion of the opposition division on the positions adopted by the parties and in particular on amendments filed by the patent proprietor. At the same time, a date will be fixed up to which written submissions may be made or amendments may be filed. Normally this date will be two months before the date of the oral proceedings. As this date is not a time limit, Rule 132 does not apply and the parties cannot request to postpone it.

The summons to oral proceedings and the annexed communication do not constitute decisions within the meaning of Art. 106(1) and can thus only be appealed together with the final decision (see T 1954/14) unless either of them allows a separate appeal to be filed (see E‑X, 3).