T 0441/23 - Respondent withdraws request for oral proceedings

Key points

• This decision was published already in February 2025.
• In Visser's Annoted EPC, 2025 edition, we write: "According to T488/18 and T598/19, partial reimbursement of the appellant’s appeal fee can also be based on the withdrawal of a request for oral proceedings by another party to the appeal proceedings (e.g. a respondent) because R.103(4)(c) refers to ‘any request’. However, T777/15 and T795/19 have come to the opposite conclusion, i.e. that the appellant must have timely withdrawn its own request for oral proceedings to benefit from partial reimbursement."
• The present decision:  "Since the respondent's withdrawal of the request for oral proceedings was made within one month of notification of the communication issued by the Board in preparation for the oral proceedings, both conditions of Rule 103(4)(c) EPC, that any request for oral proceedings is withdrawn within one month of notification of the communication issued by the Board of Appeal in preparation for the oral proceedings and no oral proceedings take place, are met  [and the appeal fee is reimbursed in part to the appellant]. It makes no difference that the withdrawing party and the appealing parties are not the same (cf. T 517/17, reason 6; T 488/18, reason 8). Hence, 25% of the appeal fee is to be reimbursed to each appealing party."
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EPO 

The link to the decision is provided after the jump.

https://www.epo.org/en/boards-of-appeal/decisions/t230441eu1