The physical requirements which the documents making up the European patent application, i.e. request, description, claims, drawings and abstract, must satisfy are set out in Rule 49 and with regard to drawings in Rule 46. In particular, when amending the application documents, amendments must be typed.

Where the appointment of a legal practitioner entitled to act as professional representative in accordance with Art. 134(8), or an employee acting for an applicant in accordance with Art. 133(3), first sentence, but who is not a professional representative, is communicated to the EPO without an authorisation being filed, the representative is invited to file the authorisation within a two-month period specified by the EPO (see E‑VIII, 1.6).

Representatives acting before the EPO must on request file a signed authorisation (see A‑VIII, 3.2) within a two-month period specified by the EPO (see E‑VIII, 1.6). Both individual and general authorisations within the meaning of Rule 152(4) serve the same purpose.

Joint applicants, joint proprietors of patents and more than one person giving joint notice of opposition or intervention may act through a common representative. If the request for the grant of a European patent, the notice of opposition or the request for intervention does not name a common representative, the party first named in the relevant document will be considered to be the common representative. The common representative can thus be a legal person.