You can access the functionality in Central Fee Payment. To use Central Fee Payment, you will need to register with an email address (username) and password. No smart card authentication is required.
No, this is not possible. In Online Filing / Online Filing 2.0 you can indicate the payment method you intend to use. However, to make the actual bank payment, you first need to go to Central Fee Payment and submit a payment order to obtain your unique payment reference EPOxxxxxxxx. Once you have received it, you then need to make the transfer from your bank to the EPO’s bank account.
No. If you are already a registered user you can use the same account for the bank transfer functionality The sign-in credentials are the same.
No. The email address you provide when registering for Central Fee Payment is also your username. This means you can only use it for one user account.
Simply click the Forgot your password? link on the Central Fee Payment sign-in page and you will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password.
This functionality offers considerable advantages over the existing bank transfer procedure.
It enables you to pay fees for one or more applications with a single bank transfer. After you select the fees you want to pay, they are bundled in an order, which is given a unique payment reference. Provided the payment reference is correctly indicated in the bank transfer, the payment is automatically reconciled and allocated to the applications and fee codes selected.
You immediately receive payment confirmation once your payment is received at the EPO's bank account. This gives you certainty that the payment has been received. It may also serve as proof of payment for third parties, e.g. tax authorities.
No. Once you have submitted a payment order, you will still need to make the bank transfer via your bank. If you want to pay directly in Central Fee Payment, you can use the credit card payment functionality.
No. This is user-specific information and can only be seen by you.
No, the fee order history ‒ including the payment confirmations ‒ is user-specific, meaning you can only see orders you yourself submitted and the corresponding payment confirmations.
Yes. As long as the payer quotes the payment reference in the bank transfer, it is irrelevant who submits the payment order. However, payment confirmation will only be issued to the online user account of the person submitting the order.
A payment reference is valid for two months after order confirmation. After two months, the payment reference will be cancelled automatically. Note that a payment is not considered to have been made until the amount is received at the EPO bank account.
If the payment reference is missing or incorrect, there will be a delay in processing the fee payment. For this reason, ensure you enter the full reference, which consists of "EPO" followed by the voucher number and the check digit without any spaces (e.g. "EPOxxxxxxxx").
If you forget to state the payment reference in your bank transfer or you notice any mistakes in the payment reference, contact us.
If you notice that the order submitted is wrong, submit a new order and make the bank transfer quoting this new order's payment reference.
The payment date is the date your payment is received at the EPO bank account. The order date of the payment is irrelevant.
This new feature was introduced to improve the payment service and help users pay fees correctly and on time. It shows the procedural fees due for a selected application or patent based on the information available on file at the time.
The date indicated as the due date corresponds to the last day of the period for making the payment.
You can edit the fee amounts if you have made changes which have not yet been updated in the file but which would lead to different amounts. You are responsible for the correctness of any edited amounts.
Certain fees are not displayed in the "Fees due" fee group – mainly those that can be paid by third parties, such as opposition, appeal and administrative fees. For more information, see OJ EPO 2020, A130 .
Yes. However, you are responsible for the completeness/correctness of any edited amounts.
Please select another fee group.
Yes. You can upload a batch payment file and select bank transfer as the payment method during checkout.
To make a batch payment you need to create a file in xml or csv format containing the relevant application numbers and payment details.
When you have saved your file:
The system will automatically recognise the different fields and calculate the total amounts. You can then either go directly to the checkout or add other fees to the cart.
The validation functionality detects and automatically rejects the following:
The automatic rejection of payments reduces the administrative work involved in refunding invalidly paid fees, for both users and the EPO.
The functionality only rejects double payments of fees that are payable only once in the proceedings, e.g. the filing fee or the third/fourth/fifth/etc. renewal fee. Fees that can be paid several times during the proceedings, such as the fee for further processing or the additional search fee in the event of non-unity, are excluded from double-payment validation.
This means that you did not complete the checkout and payment process after the fee validation.
The validation of fees takes place during checkout, and rejected fees are automatically removed from your cart. However, you must continue the checkout, select a payment means and submit your order for the rejected fees to appear in your Rejected fee payment history.
If you do not check out, but instead go back to check the fees again or add additional fees, the rejected fees have already been removed from your cart and so will not be validated again. Therefore they will not appear in your Rejected fee payment history.
If all fees are rejected, you will not be able to complete the checkout and so these fees will not appear in your Rejected fee payment history.
You will receive a printable and downloadable order confirmation once you have completed the checkout process. It can also be found in your Fee order history.
Once your payment is received at the EPO's bank account you will also find payment confirmation in the Fee order history. It includes the payment date and all other relevant details, such as the application numbers, fee codes and fee amounts. There is a separate page for each application for which fees have been paid.
The Fee order history is user-specific. This means you will only see orders submitted via your user account.
When you submit an order you receive order confirmation and a payment reference. You need to quote this reference when making your bank transfer.
Payment confirmation is available once your transfer has been received at the EPO bank account. You will find it in your Fee order history.
This means that the amount received at the EPO bank account is less than the amount indicated on your order. The fee marked "partially paid" is not fully covered by your bank transfer.
To pay the outstanding amount, submit a new order, but only for this fee code and the missing amount. Then make a new bank transfer quoting this new order's payment reference.
