INTERNATIONAL TREATIES
PCT
Notice from the President of the European Patent Office dated 7 November 2006 concerning the termination of PCT-EASY filings with the European Patent Office as receiving Office under the PCT as from 1 April 2007
Since 1 January 1999, the European Patent Office as receiving Office has accepted the filing with it of international applications filed on paper under Section 102bis of the Administrative Instructions under the PCT, with a print-out of the request in PCT-EASY format and a PCT-EASY physical medium, generally in the form of a diskette or CD, containing the request and some bibliographic data in electronic form (see OJ EPO 1999, 165 ff). At present, applicants filing such PCT-EASY applications benefit from a reduction of EUR 64 in the international filing fee (see PCT Schedule of Fees).
On 1 November 2002, the European Patent Office was the first receiving Office to accept the filing of international applications in electronic form under Part 7 of the Administrative Instructions under the PCT (see OJ EPO 2002, 543 ff). Since then, the number of PCT-EASY applications received at the European Patent Office has dropped to 10% of the total international applications filed during the first half of 2006, in contrast with the ever-increasing number of international applications filed in electronic form, reaching 42% of the same total (see PCT Statistical Indicators Report August 2006). As from 12 October 2006, applicants filing international applications in electronic form benefit from a reduction of EUR 64 in the international filing fee where the request is not in character-coded format (PDF format), of EUR 129 where the request is in character-coded format (XML format) and of EUR 193 where the request, description, claims and abstract are in character-coded format (XML format) (see the PCT Schedule of Fees, and the PCT Fee Tables in the PCT Newsletter).
In view of the success of epoline®, and in order to streamline further the processing of international applications, the European Patent Office will cease to accept PCT-EASY applications as from 1 April 2007. This means that, as from that date, such applications will be processed as international applications filed on paper. It follows that any PCT-EASY physical medium received by the European Patent Office will be disregarded and no application filed with the European Patent Office as receiving Office will benefit from the fee reduction applicable to PCT-EASY applications.