Release notes: Online Filing 2.0

• UP7000: Improvements in processing imported submissions
• Minor technical corrections and fixes

Unitary Patent features in Online Filing 2.0 

Patent applicants and their representatives can now file: 

• a request for unitary effect (form UP 7000)
• other UP-related documents (as attachments to form UP 7038)
• a request to delay issuing the decision to grant a European patent in response to a communication under Rule 71(3) EPC (EP 1038 filing/search/examination)

Your administrator needs to grant you permission to draft, sign and/or send forms UP 7000 and UP 7038. 

You can find form UP 7000 under Start a procedure, and submit form UP 7038 using the Submit EP 1038, UP 7038, PCT-SFD option. 

NEW: Notice of opposition (EP2300) in Online Filing 2.0

Users, in particular opponents, interveners, and their representatives can now file Notice of opposition (EP2300) in Online Filing 2.0.

Your Administrator needs to give you rights to draft, sign and/or send the form. The form can be found under Start a procedure.

NEW: Demo for Notice of opposition (EP2300) in Online Filing 2.0  

Users, in particular opponents, interveners, and their representatives can now familiarise themselves with the new Notice of opposition (EP2300) features in Online Filing 2.0. Use demo mode to practice drafting, signing and sending requests for opposition, without submitting a real filing. Demo mode transmissions go to a different EPO server address from production submissions; submissions are confirmed by a demo receipt. They do not constitute a valid submission.   

Your Administrator needs to give you rights to draft, sign and/or send the form in DEMO mode. The form can be found under Start a procedure.  

All EP forms: 

• Montenegro has acceded to the European Patent Convention, see  OJ EPO 2022, A78 

As a result, all submissions in status Draft, Ready to sign or Ready to send have been set to Revised by system.  

Removing Montenegro as an extension state from your submission 

If you have selected Montenegro as an extension state, you will need to remove it from the pdf and xml files in your submission by doing the following: 

1. Open the submission, and make sure it is in Draft status. 

2. In the Application details tab, clear the checkbox Request for extension to extension states. 

3. Save your change. 

If you wish to request extension to Bosnia and Herzegovina, select the checkbox Request for extension to extension states and then select BA - Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• The validation messages displayed under the bell are now also displayed in the Ready to sign and Ready to send statuses. 

Minor technical corrections and fixes

Demo for new Unitary Patent features in Online Filing 2.0

Patent applicants and their representatives can now familiarise themselves with the new Unitary Patent features in Online Filing 2.0 and Online Filing. Use demo mode to practice drafting, signing and sending requests for unitary effect.

EP1001: 

• Corrected behaviour for fee 501 - when adding or removing additional documents, the fee is also (de-)selected 
• Drawings section no longer added to pdf when submission includes no drawings 
• In package overview, priority document names are now displayed in correct sequence 
• Serbo-Croatian added to the list of Other languages 
• Validation for entering a US PRIO number improved

EP1200: 

• Improvements in processing fee information when importing a submission 
• When adding a SPECTRAN document to the submission the document type is now included

EP1001 and EP1200: 

• The size of the input fields for Number of claims, Figures to be published and Number of drawings when adding documents has been increased to make them more readable when the browser window is resized 
• Fees are now automatically selected/de-selected when including/excluding extension and validation states 
• The Name and Address input field for the Depositary institution is now responsive to the length of the input 
• System defaults to first appointed applicant when representative is removed

EP1038: 

• For EP1038 LR, option added to select "Other document" under Document description 
• Public fees are no longer selectable when making a submission that contains non-public documents

PCT forms: 

• When two parties of the same type with the same name are added on the signature screen they are no longer both highlighted when only one is selected 
• When creating a draft from a template that includes a signature, this signature is removed 
• The inability, in some case, to sign and send submissions has been resolved

All forms: 

• Titles of uploaded documents limited to 100 characters

External portal: 

• Text signatures added by users are now displayed correctly in the generated pdf 
• In the Administration section, in Access rights / permissions, it is now possible to search based on user and smart card number 
• For better visibility, the bell icon containing the validation messages is now next to the action buttons 
• Each new deployment will automatically refresh the browser cache 

EP1038:

• Filing/Search/Examination: in the Request/declaration tab, a new section has been added where you can make the request for examination in the relevant admissible non-EPO language. This sentence is now written out in full,
• Appeal: description of fees 011 and 011e is correctly reflected on the generated pdf,

EP1001:

• Biological material: the accession number is not saved in a draft when you leave that draft. 
• Biological material: when selecting the BIOM institution, the accession number field shows the correct code. 
• Biological material: a validation has been added in the event that the Page and line field does not contain numeric characters only.

EP1200: 

• The generated PDF shows an amended version of the declaration under section "14. Method of payment", in the event of "bank transfer" or "credit card".  

External portal: 

• Address book folders are now sorted by alphabetical order. 
• An auto filtering functionality has been added in the Find a contact in address book window. 
• A search functionality has been added in Administration - Access rights/permission.

All forms: 

• Province/state/county field now allows spaces and hyphens. 
• At signing stage, the label "Signing party's role in organisation" has been changed to "Function of person signing". 
• Date of creation of a note is now the current day's date. 
• When importing a submission package that contains files with the extension in upper case, the respective file is not imported. Now there will be an error message indicating the reason for this. 
• Technical issue with submission of EP1200 has been resolved. 

Templates: 

• Address for correspondence information is now always retained. 
• Status of the template will remain as is and will not be changed to "Revised" by the system after a new deployment has been carried out.

PCT/RO/101: 

• Draft created from template: a new validation has been added to check that the user reference is as expected. 
• Draft created from template: issue with date on fee sheet preview has been fixed; it will now show the current day's date. 
• XML full body attachments are processed correctly.

EP 1001:

• Import: you can now import multiple applicants who have different designated states.
• Import: if you import a submission containing more than 15 claims, the appropriate claims fee is automatically selected.

EP 1038:

• Import: you can now import submissions with an upper-case file extension.
• You can no longer select a mix of public/non-public documents and/or fees.

EP 1200:

• Import: the validation on the EP application number has been fixed.

All forms:

• You can now send submissions in batches (max. 25 submissions).
• Import: you can now select fees that were not imported with the submission package.
• You can now select the box Applicant is represented by the following employee (Article 133(3) EPC) when there is no common representative.
• The Number of EPO deposit account field is no longer prefilled with 28.
• You can't import a submission or add a file with the file name receipt.pdf.
• Template: The list of characters permitted in template names has changed. Spaces and dots can no longer be used in the name of a template. If you have a template with these characters in its name, please rename and save the template in order to be able to use it.

PCT/RO/101:

• Submission package and fee sheet are now downloadable as PDFs for Chrome and Edge.
• Create draft from template is now available to users with rights to draft PCT/RO/101.

External portal:

• Access rights / permissions: some users experienced issues with endless scrolling; these have now been solved.
• In the Assign folder permissions window, the user names are now sorted alphabetically.
• Various GUI improvements.

EP 1001:

• Under Parties, inventors: for Inventor, under Declaration concerning acquired rights and waivers, you can now indicate today's date in cases where the applicant has acquired the right to the European patent by agreement.

EP 1200:

• Under EP entry: Under Acceleration of procedure, you can now request processing within 31 months from the international filing date.
• Under the Documents tab, if multiple documents are added under Additional documents, they are now all shown in the generated .pdf form.

EP 1038:

• EP1038 OPPO: Fee 010 (opposition fee) is now available for the party Representative.
• For submissions created as a subsequent action, the Confirm submission reviewed button is now shown as soon as you select Prepare to sign.

PCT forms:

• To align with ePCT, / (slash) and . (dots) are no longer allowed in the User's file reference.
• Copy from address book now imports Line 1 and Line 2 of the Address and merges them in the Street address field.

All Forms:

• When copying an existing address in the address book, the system now asks you if you want to overwrite or to create a duplicate contact.
• The document viewer in the Documents tab has been improved and re-introduced.
• Under Parties, inventors: the entire content of the Email address field is now displayed.
• Imported applications: document cards are now shown without any overlaps in technical content.
• The input in the Parties, inventors fields is aligned with the behaviour of the address book, i.e. you are alerted if the input in the field exceeds the maximum number of characters and you can shorten the input as you see fit.
• Under Parties, inventors, in the case of representation by an employee, the radio buttons Mr and Ms have been removed.
• In the View package, the submission status is now shown.
• In the Documents tab: if the file name exceeds 96 characters, you get the message "The file name is too long. Rename your file (max. 96 characters) before uploading it."
• In the Documents, Upload a file window: you can no longer re-name the document.
• Draft created as a subsequent filing: the number of the previous application is no longer displayed in the Application number column in the Submissions tab.

External Portal:

• Access rights / permissions: you can now sort by user or card number.
• Access rights / permissions: you can now scroll down through the page.
• Template: any change in User's file reference is immediately reflected.
• In Submissions, View history, a Close button has been added.
• Various GUI improvements.

New update of ePCT available 

Your system will be automatically updated to reflect WIPO's December release. You can now pay fees via PCT-SFD. This release also contains various other improvements to the user interface.

• All forms
  
  • Status changes: after clicking Send submission, you now see one of the following statuses:
    Processing submission ... : intermediate status, shown until the receipt becomes available
    Sending failed - try again:  the receipt could not be generated, you need to resend your submission
    Submitted: your submission has been submitted, the receipt is available
  • Email addresses: addresses with one character before the @ is now accepted
  • Uploading PDF documents with unsupported characters in the file name now triggers a pop-up warning 
  • The validation messages shown under the bell are now in the same order as they appear in the form

• EP1001, EP1200
  • Email addresses are now rendered on the PDF form generated

• EP1038
  • Importing EP1038 packages created in Online Filing (CMS) or OnlineFiling 2.0 and containing an EPO Form 1005 or 1012 is now possible
  • Importing EP1038 forms created in Online Filing: all selected fees are now imported

• Portal
  • Email addresses:
    • addresses with one character before the @ are now accepted
    • capital letters in domain names are now accepted
  • Various GUI improvements

Portal

• Email addresses containing capital letters are now supported
• You can now export more than one submission package at a time (max. 25 submission packages)

EP 1001:

• When you import a form, fee 005 is now available for selection
• You can now delete any draft containing specifications in DOCX format

EP 1200:

• Fee 093 is now available for selection
• The yellow validation message no longer appears when amended replacement pages or amendments are attached

PCT/RO/101:

• You can now preview and download the fee sheet by selecting View package

PCT Demand, PCT-SFD:

• Templates are no longer supported

All forms:

• Removing an attachment in a draft submission now works for any type of document
• The US priority number can now contain commas
• You can now view and download submission receipts in Firefox
• You can now view the content of all submissions prepared before the last release
• You can now delete any submissions imported from online filing (CMS)
• Attached documents are now listed in the same order as they were attached
• You will now receive a warning message if a package exceeds 500 MB and/or if the maximum file size exceeds 300 MB
• When you import an application, the organisation name can now contain up to 128 characters

Portal

• Email addresses containing minus symbols / hyphens are now supported
• In the Administration tab, Access rights / permissions, the Remove user button has been moved. To remove a user from an organisation, you now select the user, then Manage rights / permissions and then Remove user

EP 1001:

• In the Documents tab, Application documents, the View button allowing you to view application documents has been removed. You now select View package to view attached application documents

All forms:

• File name assigned by system: the filename extension on the user interface is now consistent with the one displayed on the rendered PDF form
• Working in a time zone other than UTC will not change the filing date you enter

Portal

• Submissions made in Online Filing 2.0 are no longer shown under System messages in the demo environment
• You can now delete submissions in any status other than Submitted
• Address book: Region is now a free-text field
• Folders that previously contained PCT submissions can now be deleted

All forms:

• In lists of countries, the value Undefined has been removed
• File name extensions in the case of attachments: upper-case extensions or extensions with a mix of lower and upper case are now supported
• Spaces are no longer supported in User's file reference
• Under name details: Region is now a free-text field

EP 1038:

• When you import a submission, the field Account holder is now also imported, and is shown on the user interface and as part of the submission package

EP 1200:

• When you import a submission, you can now select validation fees for that submission

EP 1001 and EP 1200:

• Priority in EP 1001 and Biological material in EP 1200: the Remove button is available only when a document is attached

PCT/IPEA/401:

• Handling fee is shown in the PDF overview and as part of the submission package

EP 1001:

• Form title shows correctly for French and German as language of proceedings
• It is no longer possible to attach a sequence listing in PDF format
• It is not possible to upload both a technical document for the claims and/or abstract (SPECEPO) and a translation of the same technical document (SPECTRANEPO)

EP 1200:

• It is no longer possible to attach a sequence listing in PDF format
• It is possible to indicate that a description, translation of claims and/or translation of drawings amended under Article34 PCT are attached
• It is possible to pay the renewal fee for the 3rd year when it becomes due

All forms:

• It is possible to delete a draft imported from CMS
• Spinner added when a document is attached or removed or when data are exported
• 404error sometimes caused by removing a document no longer occurs
• Documents attached in templates can be removed
• Discarded documents are mentioned in the import log
• Form labels are shown in the language of the interface
• Attaching more than 10 technical documents no longer causes 404 error
• Even when fee for further processing (fee code123) is selected, it is now possible to select any other fee too; the amount of the other fee has to be entered manually
• "Submit EP 1038, PCT-SFD" functionality has been improved
• Attaching a file with a file name extension in capital letters no longer results in an unexpected error

PCT Demand

• "PCT/" is no longer added in front of the application number when a draft is saved
• Preliminary examination fee (fee code 021) is not removed after signature

EP 1038:

• Filing, search and examination: the fee quantity for a European search (fee code 002) is not changed when ISA is not an EPO member state.
• It is possible to attach the following third-party documents:
  • "Citations filed by a Third Party"
  • "Non-Patent literature filed by a Third Party"
  • "Patent document filed by a third party"
  • "Observations by Third Parties (Art. 115 EPC)"

PCT forms:

• System does not show a warning that user reference used in a cancelled draft is not unique, and this user reference can be reused

External portal:

• Domain names with more than three characters are allowed

All forms

• Additional documents: clearing the checkbox Add documents to submission removes the uploaded document
• Sequence listings in PDF format can no longer be attached
• Maximum file size allowed is now 300 MB
• Maximum package size allowed is now 500 MB
• For submissions in draft status: Draft in the heading next to the form number is now shown in the GUI language

EP 1200

• For party Natural person, the address for correspondence information is now included in the submission package
• Fee 033 - Renewal fee for the 3rd year is now available for selection
• Sequence Listing are part of the submission package

EP 1001

• Italian patent application or utility model priority numbers are now accepted

• EP 1038 Filing, search & examination
  • Amount of the fee for further processing (fee code 123) is calculated automatically, depending on the fee(s) selected
  • Checkbox for Rule 6(4) EPC (The/Each applicant is a natural person or an entity under Rule 6(4) EPC) is not present for applications with date of filing before 01.04.2014
  • Name of represented party is now rendered correctly on the ep1038.pdf
• EP 1001
  • Import from new online filing (CMS): any admissible non-EPO language selected is now imported
  • Import from new online filing (CMS): any request for re-establishment of rights is now imported
  • The additional filing fee for the 36th and each subsequent page (fee code 501) is displayed when users add specifications in .docx format
• EP 1001, EP 1200
  • Description of documents uploaded under Additional documents, Other is shown in the interface language selected by the user
  • Documents uploaded under Additional documents, Other are numbered sequentially
• PCT/RO/101
  • It is now possible to create a template from a draft
• All forms
  • Tooltip for date fields does not overlap with the date picker
• All forms, portal
  • The field Organisation now supports 128 characters
  • The timezone applied to all indications of time is Central European Time, regardless of the user's timezone
• Address book import
  • Update of the error message displayed whenever there is an error associated with an address book import
  • It is now possible to import an address book with up to 5 000 entries
  • All discarded regions are mentioned in the import log
• Portal, Access rights / permissions
  • All the forms available are now shown by default
  • Users with permission to send can now see the submission package
  • Update of the message displayed when a user is removed

• For selected method of payment “Debit from deposit account”, fee 005 (Designation fee - For all contracting States designated for applications filed on/after 01.04.2009) and fee 008 (Additional printing fee for 36th and each subsequent page are available for selection).
• It is possible to sort by Application number in tab Submission
• EP1038 Filing/Search/Exam: for method of payment “Automatic debit order”, fee 002/Fee for a European search - Applications filed on/after 01.07.2005) is not any longer shown
• Mandatory asterisk for field "Registration No. of association of professional representatives" is now present in all forms
• EP1001: Select checkbox "Request for examination in an admissible non-EPO language (Article 14(4) EPC)" is present after re-opening a draft
• Address book: if new contact is added to the existing address book they are shown on the GUI
• EP1001: Fee 006 (Examination fee - For applications filed on/after 01.07.2005), discount is calculated automatically.
• EP1200, EP1001: for method of payment “Automatic debit order” number of EPO deposit account remains when user returns to draft.
• EP1038 Filing/Search/Exam: Fees 005, 015, 016 have got maximum values.
• EP1038: Filing date field is moved to the tab “Fees” and does not becomes available if payment method “automatic debit order” or “not specified” has been selected.

• Filter retrieves all types of statuses
• EP1200, EP1001: for automatic debit order, the deposit account number is present when draft is reopened
• EP1200: not informing the content of an attached translation of a PCT application results in a severity one error message
• EP1038 – opposition: document Affidavit is shown once in the dropdown list
• EP1038 Filing, search and examination: fees are still present when draft is reopened
• Save as template an imported draft: technical issue resulting in blank tabs is solved
• EP1200: if EPO is elected office, in document tab, the checkbox “Translation of description amended under Article 34 PCT” is selectable only if “Language of the internal publication” is not French, German or English
• It is possible to attach more than once the following documents in a same submission:
  • EP1038 Filing, search and examination: acknowledgement of receipt
  • EP1038 Opposition: acknowledgement of receipt, Clean copy of amended claim(s), Clean copy of amended description, Clean copy of amended drawing(s), facts and arguments
• It is possible to attach the following documents in a form:
  • EP1038 Opposition: amended claims with annotations, amended drawings with annotations, amended description with annotations