Rule 112 – Conduct of the oral hearing

1. The oral hearing shall be held before the panel and shall be under the control of the presiding judge.

2. The oral hearing shall consist of:

(a) the hearing of the parties’ oral submissions;

(b) the hearing of witnesses and experts under the control of the presiding judge.

3. The Court may decide to:

(a) allow a party, representative or accompanying person, to attend the oral hearing by videoconference,

(b) hear a party, witnesses or expert through electronic means, such as video conference or

(c) hold the oral hearing by videoconference if all parties agree or the Court considers it appropriate to do so due to exceptional circumstances. In all cases, the oral hearing shall be transmitted simultaneously in picture and sound to the court room.

4. The presiding judge and the judges of the panel may provide a preliminary introduction to the action and put questions to the parties, to the parties’ representatives and to any witness or expert.

5. Under the control of the presiding judge, the parties may put questions to the witness or expert. The presiding judge may prohibit any question which is not designed to adduce admissible evidence.

6. With the consent of the Court a witness may give evidence in a language other than the language of proceedings.

Relation with Agreement: Articles 52(3) and 53(1)

Case Law:

IPPT20240227, UPC CFI, CD Munich, Sanofi-Aventis v Amgen
Use of slides during oral hearing of 4 June 2024 (Rule 9 RoP, Rule 112 RoP). Use of reasonable number of slides as demonstratives, which may not introduce any new facts or substance to the case, permitted; to be submitted by all parties by 7 May 2024 at the latest. Both parties are to include with the slides a table indicating exactly where in the pleadings/evidence already on file the contents of the slides can be found.