1.1 Filing of applications by means of electronic communication
1.1.1 1.2.2 Filing of applications in electronic form
European patent applications and international (PCT) applications may also be filed electronically with the EPO in electronically form (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 14 May 2021, OJ EPO 2021, 3 May 2023, OJ EPO 2023, A48) using either
(i)EPO Online Filing (OLF), by packaging and submitting the documents using the software provided by the EPO (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 8 July 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A70 24 November 2023 concerning the version of the EPO Online Filing software to the used for the electronic filing of documents, OJ EPO 2023, A96) unless the use of other software is permitted. Filings using OLF may be made online or on electronic data carriers accepted by the EPO. At present, they are CD-R discs conforming to the ISO 9660 standard and DVD-R or DVD+R discs (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 14 May 2021, OJ EPO 2021, A42 3 May 2023, OJ EPO 2023, A48)
(iii)the EPO web-form filing service. or
(iv)the EPO Contingency Upload Service.
Other documents may also be filed electronically in proceedings under the EPC (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 14 May 2021, OJ EPO 2021, A42 3 May 2023, OJ EPO 2023, A48).
Certain procedural acts may be filed electronically using the MyEPO Portfolio service (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 11 May 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A51 9 October 2023, OJ EPO 2023, A89, the notice from the EPO dated 9 October 2023, OJ EPO 2023, A90, and the notice from the EPO dated 11 May 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A52 3 May 2023, OJ EPO 2023, A50). Currently, only those documents specified in the above decision or in an announcement on the EPO website or in the EPO Official Journal may be filed using this service.
European patent applications may also be filed in electronic form electronically with the competent national authorities of those contracting states that permit this.