News

EPO Announces Pilot Program for AI-Assisted Minutes of Oral Proceedings

6 May 2025

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced a pilot program aimed at enhancing the preparation of minutes of oral proceedings held via videoconference (VC) through the integration of AI transcription tools.

Starting in May 2025 and running until the end of the year, selected examining division and opposition division oral proceedings will take part in the pilot. The EPO plans eventually to extend AI-assisted minutes to all oral proceedings. The EPO emphasises a “human-centric” approach where the goal is to improve the quality of the minutes of oral proceedings and to provide them more efficiently, with responsibility for the content of the minutes remaining entirely with the competent division of the EPO. The competent division will inform participants of oral proceedings about the recording ahead of the oral proceedings and parties will be prohibited from recording or retransmitting the proceedings, in line with current practice. The recording and its transcription will be deleted once the minutes of oral proceedings are issued to the parties to proceedings.

This pilot program highlights the EPO’s commitment to enhancing efficiency while safeguarding the accuracy of its processes. It remains important for applicants to check the minutes of their hearings for accuracy and to ensure that any important points are correctly noted, because the content of the minutes can be important, for example when appealing decisions on procedural grounds.

Rhodri Kendrick

Electronics, Computing & Physics group

This publication is a general summary of the law. It should not replace legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances.

© Withers & Rogers LLP May 2025