Report of the Professional Conduct Committee

1 Code of Conduct – some amendments have been approved by the Council at its
meeting on 11 November 2023

After a long work, spanning over three terms of PCC, some proposals for amending the Code of Conduct have been adopted by the Council at meeting C96. These proposals are the result of the work of several Working Groups of PCC, which proposed, discussed, received suggestions, presented drafts (to the Board and to the Council); in the end, the semi-final draft was discussed (and further amended) in a joint Working Group with the By-Laws Committee during last summer.

The scope of this revision includes updating and improving the wording of the Code of Conduct, a reference to continuing professional education, a revision of the wording in respect of conflicts, and specific conduct provisions in respect of internal epi elections.

Revision of the wording includes a more extensive and precise use of definitions, the correction of few inconsistencies, and the adoption of a gender-neutral wording.

Continuing professional education is addressed by an explicit reference in Art. 1 to the personal duty to keep ourselves professionally updated.

In respect of conflicts, a lot was discussed but in the end it was preferred to introduce only very limited amendments, only to conform to the wording of the Regulation on Discipline.

A new Art. 8 addresses now the conduct of members in respect of epi internal elections.

The proposal presented to the Council included also a new sub-article addressing keeping of files, but the Council has found possible difficulties in applying that provision in some specific cases and eventually rejected the proposal. Thus, this issue will be studied again by PCC.

The amended Code of Conduct will be published as usual in the EPO Official Journal and be soon available on the epi website.

2 Code of Conduct – further activities in other areas

In addition to the mentioned issue of keeping of files, PCC will continue to study and discuss possible further improvements of the Code of Conduct, in particular in respect of the following issues:

transfer of files
diversity and inclusion
provisions for members responsible for training EQE candidates
provisions for EQE candidates
possible conflict situations related to national address for service for granted patents

3 Training

The specific WG of PCC continues to work - together with the Professional Education Committee - to offer training in the area of conduct.

After the two webinars offered in January 2023, a further webinar was offered in September, addressing the basics (provisions, bodies and procedures) of the disciplinary system for epi members. This webinar was offered after having realized from the practical experience of many requests under CoC Art. 7(d) that, while most epi members seem well in line with the conduct provisions, many of them do not know how the disciplinary system works and what can be expected in a disciplinary case or when requesting advice under Art. 7(d) CoC. More webinars are under preparation.

4 Membership of PCC

In PCC, each national group can (and in principle should) be represented by a member, possibly also by a substitute member, but unfortunately some national groups have not been represented in the last term, and even less are represented in the present term. As many as 12 countries are not represented: Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Montenegro, Malta, Serbia, Slovakia. Even more are the countries with no substitute member: they are 27, i.e. the great majority of the 39 countries.

PCC reminds that there is always an opportunity to remedy this situation by interim elections, at future Council meetings, provided that there are available candidates.

Recommendations of Council

Resolution regarding non-attendance at oral proceedings
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Non-Discrimination between representatives
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Recommendation of the Council concerning the title (professional designation)
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Recommendation on the use of titles by Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office
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Recommendation on the professional title to be used by epi members who are authorized to represent parties before the UPC
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Recommendation on professional conduct in relation to the war in Ukraine
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Recommandation concernant la non-participation à une procédure orale
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Non-discrimination entre mandataires
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Recommandation du Conseil concernant le titre (désignation professionnelle)
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Recommandation relative à l'usage des titres professionnels par les mandataires agréés près l'Office européen des brevets
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Recommandation sur le titre professionnel à utiliser par les membres de l'epi qui sont autorisés à représenter les parties devant l'UPC
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Recommandation relative à la conduite professionnelle à propos de la guerre en Ukraine
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