Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Added2. The electronic database may include personal data, beyond those included in the Register, to the extent that such particulars are required by this Regulation or by acts adopted pursuant to it. The collection, storage and processing of such data shall serve the purposes of:

Added(a) administering the applications and/or certificate registrations as described in this Regulation and in acts adopted pursuant to it;

Added(b) accessing the information necessary for conducting the relevant proceedings more easily and efficiently;

Added(c) communicating with the applicants and other third parties;

Added(d) producing reports and statistics enabling the Office to optimise its operations and improve the functioning of the system.

Added3. The Executive Director shall determine the conditions of access to the electronic database and the manner in which its contents, other than the personal data referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article but including those listed in Article 34(3), may be made available in machine-readable form, including the charge for such access.

Added4. Access to the personal data referred to in paragraph 2 shall be restricted and such data shall not be made publicly available unless the party concerned has given his express consent.

Added5. All data shall be kept indefinitely. However, the party concerned may request the removal of any personal data from the database after 18 months from the expiry of the certificate or, the case being, the closure of the relevant inter partes procedure. The party concerned shall have the right to obtain the correction of inaccurate or erroneous data at any time.

AddedArticle 36 Transparency

Added1. Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council shall apply to documents held by the Office.

Added2. The Management Board of the Office shall adopt detailed rules for applying Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 in the context of this Regulation.

Added3. Decisions taken by the Office under Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 may be challenged through the European Ombudsman or form the subject of an action before the Court of Justice of the European Union, under the conditions laid down in Articles 228 and 263 TFEU respectively.

Added4. The processing of personal data by the Office shall be subject to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

AddedArticle 37 Representation

Added1. Natural or legal persons having neither their domicile nor their principal place of business or a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the European Economic Area shall be represented before the Office in accordance with this Article in all proceedings provided for by Chapter III of this Regulation, other than the filing of a centralised application.

Added2. Natural or legal persons having their domicile or principal place of business or a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the European Economic Area may be represented before the Office by an employee.

AddedAn employee of a legal person may also represent other legal persons which are economically linked with the legal person being represented by that employee.

AddedThe second subparagraph also applies where those other legal persons have neither their domicile nor their principal place of business nor a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment within the Union.

AddedEmployees who represent natural or legal persons shall, at the request of the Office or, where appropriate, of the party to the proceedings, file with the Office a signed authorisation for insertion in the files.

Added3. A common representative shall be appointed where there is more than one applicant or more than one third party acting jointly.

Added4. Only a practitioner established in the Union, entitled to act as a professional representative in patent matters before a national patent office or the European Patent Office, or a lawyer authorised to practise before the courts or tribunals of a Member State, may represent natural or legal persons before the Office.

AddedArticle 38 Combined applications

Added1. A centralised application may also include a request for the grant of a unitary certificate, as defined in Regulation [OP, please insert reference to COM(2023)0221] (‘combined application’).

Added2. The combined application shall undergo a single centralised examination procedure, as well as a single opposition or appeal procedure, where it has been filed against an opinion or decision in respect of both the centralised application and the unitary certificate application.

Added3. The Member States for which the basic patent has unitary effect shall not be designated in the combined application for the parallel grant of national certificates. Any designation, in the combined application, of a Member State for which the basic patent has unitary effect shall be disregarded for the purpose of the examination of the combined application.

AddedArticle 39 Supplementary Protection Certificates Division

AddedA Supplementary Protection Certificate Division (‘SPC Division’) shall be set up within the Office and shall be responsible for implementing the tasks set out in Chapter III of this Regulation and in Chapter III of Regulation [OP, please insert reference to COM(2023)0231], as well as in Regulations [OP, please insert reference to COM(2023)0222] and [OP, please insert reference to COM(2023)0221], including in particular:

Added(a) receiving and supervising the examination of centralised applications for certificates, appeals and observations by third parties;

Added(b) adopting examination opinions on behalf of the Office in relation to centralised applications for certificates;

Added(c) deciding on oppositions against examination opinions;

Added(d) maintaining the Register and the database.

AddedArticle 40 Languages

Added1. All documents and information sent to the Office in respect of the procedures under this Regulation shall be in one of the official languages of the Union.

Added2. For the tasks conferred on the Office under this Regulation, the languages of the Office shall be all the official languages of the Union in accordance with Council Regulation No 1.

AddedArticle 41 Communications to the Office

Added1. Communications addressed to the Office may be effected by electronic means. The Executive Director shall determine to what extent and under which technical conditions those communications may be submitted electronically.

Added2. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 54 to supplement this Regulation by specifying the rules on the means of communication, including the electronic means of communication, to be used by the parties to proceedings before the Office and the forms to be made available by the Office.

AddedArticle 42 Decisions and communications of the Office

Added1. Decisions of the Office under this Chapter shall include examination opinions and shall state the reasons on which they are based. They shall be based only on reasons or evidence on which the parties concerned have had an opportunity to present their comments. Where oral proceedings are held before the Office, the decision may be given orally. Subsequently, the decision or opinion shall be notified in writing to the parties.

Added2. Any decision, opinion, communication or notice from the Office under this Chapter shall indicate the SPC Division and the relevant panel as well as the name or the names of the examiners responsible. It shall be signed by these examiners, or, instead of a signature, carry a printed or stamped seal of the Office. The Executive Director may determine that other means of identifying the SPC Division and the name of the examiners responsible, or an identification other than a seal, may be used where decisions or other communications are transmitted by any technical means of communication.

Added3. Decisions of the Office under this Chapter which are open to appeal shall be accompanied by a written communication indicating that any notice of appeal is to be filed in writing at the Office within 2 months of the date of notification of the decision in question. That communication shall also draw the attention of the parties to the provisions laid down in Article 29. The parties may not plead any failure on the part of the Office to communicate the availability of appeal proceedings.

AddedArticle 43 Oral proceedings

Added1. If the Office considers that oral proceedings would be expedient they shall be held either at the instance of the Office or at the request of any party to the proceedings.

Added2. Oral proceedings before an examination panel or opposition panel shall not be public.

Added3. Oral proceedings before the Boards of Appeal, including delivery of the decision and, as the case may be, of a revised opinion, shall be public, unless the Boards of Appeal decide otherwise in cases where admission of the public could have serious and unjustified disadvantages, in particular for a party to the proceedings.

Added4. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 54 to supplement this Regulation by setting out the detailed arrangements for oral proceedings.

AddedArticle 44 Taking of evidence

Added1. In any proceedings before the Office, the means of giving or obtaining evidence shall include the following:

Added(a) hearing the parties;

Added(b) requests for information;

Added(c) the production of documents and items of evidence;

Added(d) hearing witnesses;

Added(e) opinions by experts;

Added(f) statements in writing sworn or affirmed or having a similar effect under the law of the State in which the statement is drawn up.

Added2. The relevant panel may commission one of its members to examine the evidence adduced.

Added3. If the Office or the relevant panel considers it necessary for a party, witness or expert to give evidence orally, it shall issue a summons to the person concerned to appear before it. Where an expert is summonsed, the Office or the relevant panel, as applicable, shall be verify that that expert is free of any conflict of interest. The period of notice provided in such summons shall be at least 1 month, unless they agree to a shorter period. [Am. 32]

Added4. The parties shall be informed of the hearing of a witness or expert before the Office. They shall have the right to be present and to put questions to the witness or expert.

Added5. The Executive Director shall determine the amounts of expenses to be paid, including advances, as regards the costs of taking of evidence as referred to in this Article.

Added6. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 54 to supplement this Regulation by setting out the detailed arrangements for the taking of evidence.

AddedArticle 45 Notification