1.2 Filing of applications by means of electronic communication
1.2.2 Filing of applications in electronic form
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A revised version of this publication entered into force. |
European patent applications and international (PCT) applications may also be filed with the EPO in electronic form (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 14 May 2021, OJ EPO 2021, A42) 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 21 September 2020 8 July 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A70 OJ EPO 2020, A105), 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, the data carriers permitted 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);
(iii)the EPO web-form filing 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).
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, and the notice from the EPO dated 11 May 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A52). Currently, only those documents specified in the above decision may be filed using this service.
European patent applications may also be filed in electronic form with the competent national authorities of those contracting states which so permit.