More Say for the Profession in Disciplinary Matters
Currently, the epi Council is dealing with proposals for substantial changes to the disciplinary system for European Patent Attorneys aiming to increase the role of our profession in the system, but also to streamline procedures to improve quality and timeliness of decisions and to modernize proceedings by digitalisation. The present article intends to provide to all epi members an overview on the proposals, the status and possible next steps until the envisaged changes may come into force.
The present Disciplinary System for European Patent Attorneys
The topic of the Disciplinary System is for epi members perceived like the annual visit at the dentist: it is understood to be necessary and helpful to prevent and address further damage and pain, but it is nothing pleasant and therefore many of us are not particularly interested in the details of the system, if they are not directly involved or affected by a disciplinary proceeding.
Nevertheless, a Code of Conduct and a well-functioning disciplinary system to enforce it are essential elements to earn and maintain trust into the integrity of our profession towards all clients, employers, patent offices, cooperating lawyers and the society at large. Every disciplinary proceeding starts with a complaint or suspicion that a member of epi had violated the professional rules by misbehaving in a certain way. Anyone can file such a complaint.
The present disciplinary system for European Patent Attorneys is largely unchanged since our profession was established in 1978 and consists of a relatively complex setup of 3 different disciplinary bodies: the Disciplinary Committee of the epi, the Disciplinary Board of the EPO and the Disciplinary Board of Appeal, which is administratively a part of the EPO Boards of Appeal, that gained after their reform of 2016 a certain organisational independence from the Office. As shown in Fig 1, the entrance instance is always the Disciplinary Committee, which is elected every 3 years by the epi Council and hears cases in the composition of 3 members, who are all European Patent Attorneys. If they find that a case likely will lead to a higher sanction than a warning or reprimand against the accused member, then they need to refer the case further to the Disciplinary Board, which hears cases in a composition of 3 legally qualified members of the EPO and 2 epi members, who are appointed by the EPO President based on proposals from the epi Board. The Disciplinary Board can currently issue fines of up to 10 k EUR or can also order a temporary or permanent deletion of the epi member from the list of professional representatives, meaning a prohibition to exercise their profession. Decisions of the Disciplinary Committee and the Disciplinary Board are appealable to the Disciplinary Board of Appeal, which decides in a composition of 3 legally qualified members of the Board of Appeal plus 2 European Patent Attorneys who are appointed by the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation upon a proposal from the epi Board. Decisions of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal are final. The Disciplinary Board of Appeal hears and decides also on appeals filed by EQE-candidates against decisions of the EQE secretariat or the EQE Examination Board, e.g. by a candidate who felt unfairly treated during the EQE. The Presidents of the EPO and epi have a possibility to provide comments to each appeal before a decision is taken.
Proposed Amended Disciplinary System
Based on experience of the last ca. 10 years, certain shortcomings of the current disciplinary system were observed which triggered the EPO and epi to consider and work since 2023 on a proposal to change the current system. The biggest proposed change is basically the elimination of the Disciplinary Board converting the system into a simplified two-instances system as shown in Figure 2. All tasks and powers of the current Disciplinary Board are taken over by the new Disciplinary Committee, which is proposed to hear cases either in the composition of 2 epi members plus 1 legally qualified member, or is enlarged to 3 epi members plus 2 legally qualified members for serious alleged violations of the disciplinary rules. The Disciplinary Board of Appeal reviewing an appeal consists, according to the current proposal, of two (instead of currently three) legally qualified members of the Board of Appeal and two professional representatives from epi. The Chair of a Disciplinary Board of Appeal body hearing a case must be a legally qualified member and holds the deciding vote. As with the Disciplinary Committee, the Disciplinary Board of Appeal may likewise be enlarged to include three legally qualified members. Compared to the current system, the current proposal provides that the epi Council becomes more involved in setting the criteria and implementing rules of the new system, e.g. by establishing rules for eligibility of members of the new Disciplinary Committee and electing them, including the legally qualified members, who could also be double-qualified epi members, EPO lawyers or coming from other external institutions, e.g. (former) judges from national Courts dealing with disciplinary cases. It will also be up to epi Council to decide the size of the new Disciplinary Committee and also on the Additional Rules of Procedure for the new Disciplinary Committee – the latter task being currently performed by the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation. The epi President is supposed to still be involved in all disciplinary proceedings as a “quasi” party, with the possibility to make submissions before a decision is taken and also having a special right of Appeal against first instance decisions. Due to the applicability of the Disciplinary system to European Patent Attorneys acting as representatives before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) under Art. 48 of the Unified Patent Court Agreement, the President of the UPC Court of Appeal will also obtain the right, under certain circumstances, under certain circumstances, to comment and appeal decisions of the new Disciplinary Committee.
The list of available sanctions is according to the current proposal being updated to increase the maximum fines from currently 10 k EUR to 50 k EUR, to make it possible to combine different types of sanctions and to foresee also a provisional ban from the list of professional representatives in case for instance urgent action needs to be taken in order to protect potential clients as soon as possible from a continuous misbehaviour of a European Patent Attorney.
Further, it is proposed to introduce for each member a disciplinary record, that is added to the non-public part of the entry into the list of professional representatives, which is administered by the Legal Division of the EPO. There will be clear rules how long a disciplinary measure that was taken against an epi member will remain in the disciplinary record, e.g. 5 years for a reprimand from when it came into effect. The disciplinary record will only be accessible to institutions and persons who can prove to have a legitimate interest, e.g. disciplinary bodies or the epi President when a certificate of good-standing may be requested by an epi member.
An important amendment is the introduction of clear timelines from receiving a complaint or appeal until a final decision for all disciplinary bodies. Currently, the timeline for the new Disciplinary Committee is proposed to be 6 months and for the Disciplinary Board of Appeal 12 months.
Finally, the new proposed provisions will form a legal basis to make full use of digitalized, but still safe procedures, including use of Video conferencing.
Overall, the envisaged changes are supposed to strengthen the self-governance of epi, modernize and streamline the disciplinary proceedings for our profession.
Procedure taken so far to develop the proposal and possible next steps
Since summer 2023, when an epi Working Group on the Disciplinary System was created, we are examining how we could improve our current disciplinary system for European Patent Attorneys. Particularly during 2023 and 2024, a number of activities and investigations have been undertaken by the epi Working Group.
At the end of 2024, epi agreed together with the EPO to request an external expert opinion on the working of the disciplinary system and possible improvements. Following extensive research, interviews and studies of decisions of the disciplinary bodies, the team of University experts on professional disciplinary systems issued their report that contains a number of recommendations and ideas how to improve our current system.
Since July 2025 a Joint Working Group on the Revision of the Disciplinary System for European Patent Attorneys was formed with members from the EPO, the epi and the Boards of Appeal. The main task of the Joint Working Group is to come up with proposals for reforming the current disciplinary system, taking into account the recommendations by the external expert, the input from the epi WG on the Disciplinary System, as well as views and suggestions from members of the current disciplinary bodies (Disciplinary Committee, Disciplinary Board and Disciplinary Board of Appeal) and from other stakeholders such as the EPO President or the epi Presidium.
The final decision for any changes of the disciplinary system for European Patent Attorneys is with the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation which has scheduled that topic for the March 2026 Administrative Council meeting. Before any proposal can go there, the Committee on Patent Law, where all 39 EPC countries are represented by delegations, needs to give an opinion and most importantly our epi Council needs to support any proposed change with a 2/3rd majority. In view of the process and invested efforts so far, it is my aim to finalize a reform of the Disciplinary system from the epi side within the term of the present Council so that the newly elected Council can focus on other topics. At C100 Nice, the epi Council gave already in November 2025 certain favourable opinions and guidance on the direction of a reform of the disciplinary system, mainly to have a single first instance Disciplinary Committee that will have the combined powers and tasks of the current Disciplinary Committee and the Disciplinary Board.
At the upcoming online Council meeting that will take place on 30 January 2026, Council will be requested to discuss and also decide on the support of the amendments to the Regulation on Discipline (RDR) with consequential changes to the Founding Regulation and the Regulation on the EQE (because the Appeals against decisions of the EQE Secretariat and the EQE Examination Board are also going to the Disciplinary Board of Appeal).
Any outcome from the upcoming Council meeting will then go to the Committee on Patent Law late February 2026 and thereafter to the Administrative Council being the finally deciding body late March. Currently, it is proposed that the new RDR would come into force on 11. May 2026 when the next epi Council will meet for C102 in Dubrovnik and could then make the necessary remaining implementing decisions on the Disciplinary System, e.g. the Additional Rules of Procedure for the new DC. However, some other implementing provisions will already need to be decided at C101, in order to allow a start of the new system.
