4.3 Filing European patent applications
4.3.6Fee amounts and payment methods
4.3.017Fee amounts, payment methods and effective payment dates are governed by the Rules relating to Fees (RFees) and by measures adopted by the President of the EPO implementing certain provisions of those Rules.
Guidance on fee payment is published in each issue of the EPO's Official Journal and on the EPO's website at epo.org, so you should consult the latest issue to find out the current situation.
Fees due to the EPO, including those for a European patent application filed with a national authority, must be paid in euros direct to the EPO. You can do this by paying them into or transferring them to the bank account held by the EPO, by debiting a deposit account you have opened with the EPO, or by means of a credit card.
GL A‑X, 2, 3
ADA
OJ EPO 2022, A18, A81
OJ EPO 2017, A72
Introduced on 11 September 2021, a new central service called Central Fee Payment provides users with a unique gateway for paying fees and claiming refunds across the entire patent grant procedure and via all permitted payment methods.
4.3.018The following advice and recommendations on paying fees to the EPO should be noted:
(a) Depending on how you pay, the deemed date of payment is the day on which
– the amount of the payment or transfer is actually credited to the bank account held by the EPO, or
– the order to debit a deposit account is received at the EPO, provided the deposit account contains sufficient funds, or
– the credit card transaction is approved by the contracting bank or other financial institution ("acquirer"), i.e. generally immediately.
(b) If you can prove to the EPO that:
in a contracting state, within the relevant period for payment
– you effected the payment through a banking establishment, or
– you duly gave an order to a banking establishment to transfer the relevant amount
you will be considered to have observed the period for payment even if the amount paid is received by the EPO after expiry of the period for payment.
The EPO may request you to produce evidence of the date on which you took one of the actions listed above within a period which it specifies. If you fail to comply with this request, or if you produce insufficient evidence, the period for payment is considered not to have been observed.
(c) If you pay fees through a banking establishment, the following account with the Commerzbank in Germany is available for payments and transfers:
IBAN DE20 7008 0000 0333 8800 00
BIC DRESDEFF700
Commerzbank AG
Leopoldstrasse 230
80807 München
Germany
(d) The EPO only accepts debit orders filed in an electronically processable format (XML). Debit orders submitted in any other way, e.g. on paper, by fax, via the EPO Web-Form Filing service, using the EPO Contingency Upload Service or using a different format such as a PDF attachment or the annotation field in the online forms, are invalid and thus will not be carried out. For more information on paying fees online, e.g. via Central Fee Payment or MyEPO Portfolio, go to Online services on the EPO website (epo.org).
Point 7.1.2, 7.1.3 ADA
(e) If you are an EPO deposit account holder, you also have the option of issuing an automatic debit order, which must likewise be filed in an electronically processable format and individually for every application.
Point 14 ADA
ADA, Annexes A.1 and A.2
GL A‑X, 4.3
If an automatic debit order is filed in due time, any fee which must be paid in respect of your application within a time limit will be debited on the last day of that time limit unless special provisions apply. For more information, see the latest issue of the Arrangements for deposit accounts (ADA) and their annexes A.1 and A.2 on the EPO website (epo.org).
Payment by deposit account, using either an individual debit order or the automatic debiting procedure, reduces the risk of late payment and possible extra costs resulting therefrom.