4.2.3 Electronic filing of documents

Under decision of the President of the EPO dated 14 May 2021 (OJ 2021, A42), electronic filing of documents is admissible in opposition and appeal proceedings. There are numerous cases which deal with electronic filing of appeals before this became permissible (see, with regard to the principle of legitimate expectation, T 781/04 of 30 November 2005 date: 2005-11-30, T 991/04 of 22 November 2005 date: 2005-11-22 and T 331/08; see also T 1633/18, in which the board considered that a notice of appeal and a further letter filed via the EPO Web-Form Filing service were validly filed).

In T 1764/08, the appellant filed its statement setting out the grounds of appeal via epoline^® on the very last day of the period specified in Art. 108, third sentence, EPC. The board held that, even if the EPO had warned the appellant, the warning would not have allowed the appellant to re-file the statement of grounds of appeal by an acceptable means within said period. Therefore, under the principle of good faith, there was no duty on the part of the EPO to warn the appellant. To that extent, the case in hand differed from cases T 781/04 date: 2005-11-30, T 991/04 of 22 November 2005 date: 2005-11-22, T 514/05 and T 395/07, where the deficiency could have been identified in good time before the expiry of the relevant period.