Report of the Disciplinary Committee
The Disciplinary Committee reports about current activities
1) Next Meeting
The next meeting of the DC which will take place in Milano on 3 and 4 June 2025
3 June: 09:00 – 18:00h meeting/training and common dinner in the evening
4 June: 09:00 – 12:30 h meeting
2) New Deputy Registrar
In accordance with Article 5(1) of the Additional Rules of Procedure of the Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office, with the approval of the President Peter Thomsen The DC Chairperson herewith appointed Susanne Ullmann to act as Deputy Registrar to the Disciplinary Committee.
Due to an internal reorganization, the current Registrar will assume new responsibilities within the epi Secretariat. It is envisaged that Susanne Ullmann will succeed her as Registrar in the course of this year. To ensure a smooth transition, we have decided to temporarily appoint Susanne Ullmann as a second Deputy Registrar.
The current appointments of Sadia Liebig as Registrar and Katharina Jung as current Deputy Registrar remain unaltered.
3) Notice from the Chairperson about current practice Article 5a epi CoC
The main responsibility of a case lies with the Chairperson of that Chamber which was entrusted with that case. Usually the designated Rapporteur of that Chamber would be in charge with the handling of the case – of course in cooperation with the Chairman of the Chamber. However, the Chairman may also appoint someone else of that Chamber including himself to act as Rapporteur.
The Registrar is responsible for watching timelines and for the overall handling of incoming “cases”, cases treated by Chambers and outgoing cases (communication) and file keeping.
In rare cases is not clear between epi Members it from the complaint that the Members have had a contact as required by Article 5a epi Code of Conduct (CoC).
According to current practice cases are only treated by the DC and distributed to the President of the EPO and the President of the epi and the Chairperson of the Disciplinary Board when the formal requirements for a complaint are met and among those it has to be checked if Article 5a CoC was followed. This work is normally done by the Registrar and/or by the DC-Chairperson. In rare cases, where this check can not be done satisfactory by said persons this task has to be done by the responsible Chamber. It lies within the power of a Chamber to eventually detect a reason to not insist on Article 5a CoC.
In these rare cases a Chamber works on a “case” before it was officially accepted by the Disciplinary Committee. The Disciplinary Committee acknowledges thereby that Article 5a CoC is in line with the Regulation on Discipline and hence a real requirement to be observed – in principle – by epi Members before they file a complaint against epi Members.
From that follows, that in such rare cases a Chamber needs to decide on the question if such a “case” can be treated as a case even if the formal requirement of Article 5a CoC was not met. If in the negative either the Registrar or the Rapporteur of the Chamber informs the Complainer that he/she needs to fulfill that requirement of Article 5a CoC.
The teaching background of this practice is: epi Members should not file complaints against other epi-Members unless they have contacted them in line with Article 5a CoC.
In even more rare cases there might be exemptions to this rule, which should be decided by the Chamber that was entrusted such a “case”.
4) New Additional Rules of Procedure of the Disciplinary Committee
After the Budapest Council the Disciplinary Committee considered again all proposals from the PCC and the epi President Peter Thomsen and the discussion at the Budapest Council and reworked the proposed text accordingly. The final version was decided upon without a counter vote and without abstentions. This final version was sent to the DBoA for their final check and also to epi Council – where it is currently available in a Forum blog through the epi homepage. epi Council in Budapest had asked the Disciplinary Committee to show that final version before it is filed with the Administrative Council of the EPO. The DC-Chairperson will be available for discussion also at the upcoming epi Board meeting in Munich.
