After a request for unitary effect has been filed, any further documents needed for the procedure to obtain a Unitary Patent or relating to Unitary Patents after registration already registered may be filed with the EPO, preferably electronically by means of EPO Online Filing, Online Filing 2.0, the EPO Contingency Upload Service or, for certain procedural actions, MyEPO Portfolio. Alternatively, they may be filed by delivery by hand or by postal services. Documents may not be filed by fax (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 22 April 2024 (OJ EPO 2024, A41) and the notice from the EPO dated 22 April 2024, (OJ EPO 2024, A42)). For more details, see also EPC Guidelines, A‑VIII, 2.5.
The EPO has a formEPO Form 7038 is available for use as a letter accompanying subsequently filed documents (EPO Form 7038).
Submissions filed electronically or on paper must be signed by an authorised person (see 2.2.5). If the document is not validly signed (see 8.3), the UPP Division will invite the party concerned to sign it within a time limit to be specified by the EPO. If duly signed in time, the document retains its original date of receipt. Otherwise, it is deemed not received (Rule 20(2)(c) UPR in conjunction with Rule 50(3) EPC, Rule 20(2)(c) UPR).
For documents or submissions filed electronically, an automatically generated electronic acknowledgement of receipt is issued. No acknowledgement of receipt is issued for documents subsequently filed on paper.
For the filing requirements for authorisations, see 8.2.47.2.5.