Getting started
Features and benefits
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With Central Fee Payment you can
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Paying with Central Fee Payment
You have several options for paying your patent fees online:
- by debit order from your deposit account
- by credit card with immediate effect
- by using the bank transfer functionality
- Deposit account
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About debit orders
Deposit accounts are debited on the basis of an electronic debit order signed by the account holder or authorised representative.
The debit order may be
- for individual fees for one or more applications, i.e. a single or a batch debit order, or
- an automatic debit order for a specific European or international patent application, authorising the EPO to debit fees automatically as the proceedings progress
Requirements
What you need to be able to use Central Fee Payment and pay fees via deposit account.
- EPO deposit account. To open, reopen, close or update an EPO deposit account, please use the online form. Hardware and software required
- smart card (see Smart card and security)
- smart card reader, reader driver and cryptovision software (see Smart card and security)
- Web browser: Internet Explorer 9 and above with Compatibility View disabled, Mozilla Firefox latest version, Google Chrome. Mac: Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox.
- If you have Mozilla Firefox, you will need to install cryptovision first.
- Further settings
- Linking your deposit account to your smart card
- We have to link your deposit account to your smart card in the EPO system. If you did not indicate your deposit account on your smart card request form, you should contact EPO User Support indicating both your smart card details and your deposit account number(s).
- Granting Central Fee Payment rights
- Your company's My.epoline administrator has to grant your smart card the necessary Central Fee Payment rights.
Secure access
You need a smart card to pay patent fees via a deposit account in Central Fee Payment.
Register or renew your smart card
Sign in to pay fees or claim refunds in Central Fee Payment
Replenishment
Payments to replenish deposit accounts must be made into the EPO's bank account.
Nr. 3 338 800 00 (BLZ 700 800 00)
IBAN DE20 7008 0000 0333 8800 00
BIC* DRESDEFF700
Commerzbank AG
Leopoldstrasse 230
80807 Munich, Germany.*Please use COBADEFFXXX if DRESDEFF700 is not recognised.
The payment must include the following information in the reference field of the bank transfer: "replenishment" (or "repl" for short) or "deposit", followed by the eight-digit number (starting with 28) of the EPO deposit account concerned.
Refunds via deposit account
Applicants/professional representatives can file refund instructions pertaining to a given application requesting that refunds be credited to a deposit account held with the EPO. Refund instructions should be filed using Online Filing, Online Filing 2.0 or ePCT-Filing.
- Credit card
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About credit card payment
You can pay patent fees by credit card in Central Fee Payment. This is a secure and flexible way of making instant fee payments.
Refunds of payment by credit card
Please note that refunds to credit card accounts are not possible.
Sign in to Central Fee Payment
- Bank transfer
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About bank transfers
You can prepare your bank transfer by submitting an order online in Central Fee Payment. This allows you to pay fees for multiple applications with a single transfer. You will get a unique payment reference per order submitted.
Please then quote this reference when making the bank transfer.
Once we have received your bank transfer, payment confirmation will be available to download in the service.
Refunds to a bank account
If you have not filed any instructions indicating a deposit account to be credited in the event of a refund for your patent application, you can claim pending refunds in Central Fee Payment and request that they be credited to a bank account of your choice.
Sign in to Central Fee Payment