In a communiqué dated February 17th 2026, the EBA has announced the date of the OP in case G 1/25.
The OP will be held on May 8th 2026.
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The French will most probably be displeased as May 8th is a bank holiday.
To complete the picture, I would suggest that the decision is issued on July 14th 2026, or even November 11th 2026. All those date are bank holidays for the French. 😉
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3 replies on “Breaking news: Date for OP in case G 1/25 set.”
I can confirm that French representatives will not be pleased at this turn of events! Will the EPO ever learn that May holidays are sacred in France??! 😉
More seriously though, this “problem” has been around for some time. I heard about one case where, when OP by ViCo were still a new thing, French representatives were summoned to OP by ViCo on July 14th. However, they managed to obtain a postponement, on the grounds that while they could make themselves available, the same would not be true of the IT people at their firm, i.e. no one would be available to assist in case a technical problem occurred.
@ Extraneous attorney,
The problem of summoning to OP, be it in person or by ViCo, is a problem not only for the BA and the EBA, but also for first instance divisions.
There are numerous days in one or the other EPC contracting states, which are not working days, but for people in special jobs. You have the national days in all the countries, as well as what is known as bank holidays in the UK. May 8th or November 11th are such days in France. To my knowledge, Switzerland has the least non-working days/year and Austria the most.
For a deciding body of the EPO, it is not possible to look beforehand if the day at which parties are summoned to OP, is a working day or not. With some goodwill, an arrangement is always possible.
In examination it is easily possible to change the date. In opposition it is less flexible. If a party obtains a postponement, a following request for postponement from the other party can then not be refused.
As boards of appeal have the highest load with OP, any day which is a working day at the EPO in Germany or in The Netherlands, is day at which parties can be summoned before a BA or the EBA.
I had once a British representative who bluntly refused to come to OP on a bank holiday as he was also participating on this day to some geo catching event. He even wrote to the president… When lecturing on OP, my advice is not to brush the deciding body the wrong way up…..
The only days you do not risk to be summoned to OP are the days at which the EPO is closed either in Germany or in The Netherlands.
@Daniel X. Thomas,
I do not remember whether the case I was referring to was in examination or opposition, first instance or appeal. I suspect it was during the pilot program for ViCo in first instance examination, but the memory is fuzzy now. Time has passed.
In any case, I fully agree with all your remarks, especially the one about not brushing the deciding body the wrong way up. When I will be summoned to OP on a public holiday (I say “will” because that is bound to happen at some point), I will think long and hard before I request a postponement for this reason. After all, when a party is filing anything at the EPO, they agree to participate in the system, even if at times that participation might be inconvenient. And that extends to that party’s representatives, even more so because they get paid for their services.