Chapter 1 – General overview
1.12 External complaints
1.12.001External complaints may concern any service or product delivered by the EPO, including all PCT products, and may be submitted by any person, including applicants. They may be submitted using the online form available at new.epo.org/en/formal-complaint.
1.12.002Complaints are forwarded to a dedicated EPO unit responsible for ensuring that any complaint is dealt with fairly and efficiently and that suitable action is taken to address it. All complaints receive a detailed reply. Complaints having a substantive and/or procedural bearing on proceedings before the EPO and the replies thereto are normally included in the public part of the file.
1.12.003The complaint handling procedure does not replace the procedures laid down in the PCT; nor does the unit responsible for handling complaints take decisions on procedural requests. The department competent for the proceedings concerned decides on:
(a) complaints relating to procedural and/or substantive aspects of specific pending proceedings which are submitted by a party to those proceedings. All parties to the proceedings will be informed accordingly.
(b) complaints relating to substantive issues which are submitted by a third party while proceedings are pending before the EPO. Such a submission will be treated as a third-party observation (see point 4.2.015).