A pleading against reading out pleading notes

I have attended quite some public hearings at the FPC over the last years. Frankly, most of them are boring.

Why is that?

It surely is not because of the subject-matter at stake; that’s the interesting part. It’s the pleading notes that bother me. In most cases, pleading notes are handed over to the judges, the clerk and the other party, and those pleading notes are then read out. Literally.

Guess, what happens: Everybody is immersed in a manuscript, reading it on his/her own — while someone reads the same pleading out aloud.

I cannot think of a worse disconnect between the pleading attorney and the judges! One could as well exchange the pleading notes in writing and skip this part of the hearing. It’s a somewhat weird happening.

The following is a citation from a lawyer’s reflection about pleading notes:

Wir neigen dazu, statt einer Rede einen Schriftsatz zu verfassen und im Gerichtssaal beim Ablesen daran zu vertrocknen.

Loosely translated:

We tend to write a brief instead of a speech and dry up in the courtroom as we read it.

I am trained as a patent attorney, not as a lawyer. Even though I never liked this reading ceremony, I thus complied with it by now. It’s probably not the best idea to be a maverick when not on your home turf.

But does it really have to be like that?

I don’t think so. It’s not the law. I am used to argue my cases for hours in hearings at the EPO, with just some bullet points on the desk to keep me on track. Never would I even think of handing over pleading notes to anyone. My only goal is to get my message through to the Opposition Division or the Board.

Cutting a long story short:

A hearing shouldn’t be a reading, in my opinion.

I am glad to see that it more frequently happens in recent times in hearings at the FPC that no pleading notes are read out aloud and handed over anymore. What I believe is great. Let the real pleadings begin!

I’d be keen to know your thoughts on this:

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Reported by Martin WILMING

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