European patent applications and international (PCT) applications may be filed with the EPO in electronic form either online or on electronic data carriers (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.4). At present, the data carriers permitted are CD-R as per ISO 9660 and DVD-R or DVD+R (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.5). Documents making up a European or an international patent application in electronic form must be prepared using either the epoline® Online Filing software or the PaTrAS software, both of which include the Request for Grant Form, unless the use of other software is permitted (see Art. 4 of the Decision of the President dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.4, Art. 2 of the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.5, and the Notice from the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.6).

Other documents may also be filed electronically in the grant proceedings (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.4).

European patent applications may also be filed in electronic form with the competent national authorities of those Contracting States which so permit.