1.1 Filing of applications by means of electronic communication
1.1.1 Filing of applications in electronic form
European patent applications and international (PCT) applications may be filed electronically with the EPO (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 16 October 20248 July 2025, OJ EPO 2024, A88OJ EPO 2025, A52) using either
(ii)EPO Online Filing (OLF), by packaging and submitting the documents using the software provided by the EPO (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 16 October 2024 concerning the version of the EPO Online Filing software to be used for the electronic filing of documents, OJ EPO 2024, A89) unless the use of other software is permitted. Filings using OLF may be made online or on electronic data carriers accepted by the EPO. At present, they are CD-R discs conforming to the ISO 9660 standard and DVD-R or DVD+R discs (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 16 October 2024, OJ EPO 2024, A88) or
(ii)(iii)the EPO Contingency Upload Service.
Other documents may also be filed electronically in proceedings under the EPC (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 16 October 20248 July 2025, OJ EPO 2024, A88OJ EPO 2025, A52; see A‑II, 1.4 and A‑VIII, 2.5).
Certain procedural acts may be filed electronically using the web-based online service MyEPO Portfolio (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 9 February 2024, OJ EPO 2024, A20, and the notice from the EPO dated 9 February 2024, OJ EPO 2024, A21, as well as the decision of the President of the EPO dated 24 March 2025, OJ EPO 2025, A27, and the notice from the EPO dated 24 March 2025, OJ EPO 2025, A28). Currently, only those submissions and further acts provided for in MyEPO Portfolio and specified in the above notice dated 9 February 2024 or in another suitable form may be filed using this service.
European patent applications may also be filed electronically with the competent national authorities of those contracting states that permit this.
For filing sequence listings, see A‑IV, 5. For filing international (PCT) applications, please refer to the PCT‑EPO Guidelines, A‑II, 1.2.