MyEPO Portfolio – call for pilot participants

MyEPO Portfolio is a secure, web-based online service for parties to proceedings before the EPO that provides a fresh approach to working with the EPO on portfolios of applications and patents.

Users can view their application portfolios, view documents in the digital file, receive EPO Mailbox communications, and perform procedural acts in response to communications from the EPO. It has been designed to improve the exchange of digital information, simplify procedures, and enable more direct interaction with EPO examiners on files.

We will be developing the services available via MyEPO Portfolio progressively between now and mid-2023.

Pilot participants will be invited to use and give feedback on the following services:

Electronic notification – Mailbox for international agents and applicants

Electronic notification of a range of communications, summonses and decisions issued in proceedings before the EPO is provided through the EPO Mailbox. Currently, the Mailbox is available only to European professional representatives, legal practitioners under Article 134(8) EPC and applicants who have their residence or place of business in an EPC contracting state. These users can receive communications from the EPO online.

The pilot will test a solution developed to allow applicants and agents acting under the PCT who do not have their residence or place of business in an EPC contracting state to receive communications online. These communications will be made available in the Mailbox within MyEPO Portfolio. All communications from the EPO in the international phase where it acts as (S)ISA or IPEA will be covered.

Electronic filing – tasks

MyEPO Portfolio offers a user-friendly, task-based workflow for replying to communications from the EPO. It offers a simplified approach to making procedural submissions, filing procedural requests and submitting documents accompanying these acts and requests. Contextual procedural information guides the user, while plausibility checks and validations help to reduce errors and avoid missing deadlines.

Currently, only two tasks have been activated, namely the reply to a communication under Rule 71(3) EPC and the reply to a communication under Article 94(3) EPC. During phase 2 of the pilot, further tasks will be tested, starting with the following:

• reply to extended European search report (Rule 70a EPC)
• reply to invitation about subject-matter for search (Rules 62a or 63 EPC)

Electronic filing – management of professional representatives’ data

In due course and upon further announcement, a new suite of services for managing representation in proceedings before the EPO will also be launched. Pilot participants will be able to make requests for entry on the list of professional representatives and request changes to, or deletion of, existing entries on that list.

Further tasks or functionalities may be tested within the pilot should the opportunity arise. The EPO will stay in close communication with the pilot participants via meetings or other means of communication and will notify them of any new functionalities as the pilot progresses.

We aim to run phase 2 of the pilot project from 1 November 2022 until 30 June 2023. The pilot may be ended in stages if, for example, a particular functionality is quickly found to work well and can therefore be released earlier to all users.

Any user with a smart card who activates or links to an activated Mailbox may participate in phase 2 of the MyEPO Portfolio pilot project upon registration and invitation by the EPO.

Registration

When selecting pilot participants, we will try to ensure a fair balance in terms of their profile, company size, location, and level of expertise. So, even if we do not contact you immediately, we will save your details and get back to you when we need your support.

Your commitment as a pilot participant will help us to refine the services available in MyEPO Portfolio before general release of the additional features, and we are very much looking forward to your feedback.

During the pilot, participants will still be able to use the current Mailbox and MyFiles services and existing filing methods, although we hope they will find the user experience and additional features offered in MyEPO Portfolio attractive enough to make them want to use it instead.

Even if you are taking part in the MyEPO Portfolio pilot, you will still be able to use the existing methods of filing documents.

Any procedural actions you perform in MyEPO Portfolio during the pilot will be considered procedural acts in EPO proceedings in accordance with the applicable EPC and PCT provisions and with:

• the decision of the Vice-President Legal and International Affairs of the European Patent Office (Directorate-General 5) dated 10 October 2022 concerning the conditions for participating in phase 2 of the MyEPO Portfolio pilot project
• the decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 11 March 2015 concerning the pilot project to introduce new means of electronic communication in EPO proceedings (OJ EPO 2015, A28).

For more information, see also the notice from the European Patent Office dated 10 October 2022 concerning phase 2 of the MyEPO Portfolio pilot project