MyEPO Portfolio provides an alternative to the legacy Mailbox service, allowing you to handle your company Mailbox notifications in the same way as before. But it offers a more user-friendly interface, with extended searching and filtering and links to view applications and documents in the digital file.
Yes, the Mailbox in MyEPO Portfolio works with the same users and associates as the legacy Mailbox service – users being all those who have access to the Mailbox and associates being the patent attorneys who receive communications via the Mailbox.
Yes, anything you do in one tool is mirrored in the other tool. This is ideal for testing purposes, making it easy to switch to MyEPO Portfolio.
You use the administration tool of the legacy Mailbox service. Any changes to users or access rights by the administrator are also implemented in MyEPO Portfolio.
This is not possible yet. We endeavour to start providing new business-to-business interfaces (APIs) from the end of 2022. These might include APIs that you can use to download Mailbox communications
Yes, you can set this up from the main view.
MyEPO Portfolio complements Online Filing and Online Filing 2.0 by providing a new, guided approach to filing replies to EPO communications and other procedural acts. In the future, Online Filing 2.0 will also be integrated into MyEPO Portfolio, providing users with a seamless experience that covers all patent procedure interactions with the Office.
Representatives with a smart card can access the portfolio of European patent applications and patents for which they have been appointed. When more than one representative has been appointed for an application, only the main representative will see the application in their portfolio. Members of an association will also see the portfolio of applications for which their association is appointed as representative. As a representative, you can delegate access to other users whose smart card is registered for the same company. For example, paralegal staff and other attorneys.
The representative can do this by signing in to MyEPO Portfolio to view the portfolio and selecting Manage access. At this point, access can only be granted to a full portfolio, not individual applications. And only the representative can grant access.
Initially, only the reply to the communication about the intention to grant (Rule 71(3) EPC) can be filed. In the next 12 months, this will be extended to other procedures including:
Yes. Members of an association will be able to see the documents in the files that make up the portfolio of applications for which their association is appointed as representative. So it is crucial that the EPO's records on membership of associations are kept up to date. You can make changes to an association of professional representatives using this form. And you will find further information on associations in the notice from the EPO dated 28 August 2013 on matters concerning representation before the EPO.
