What measures are in place to counter difficulties with submissions?

Amended application and patent documents must be filed as attachments in PDF format and must comply with the WIPO Standard for Filing and Processing in Electronic Form (Annex F).

Where an attachment containing amended patent documents is not in PDF format, does not comply with the WIPO Standard for Filing and Processing in Electronic Form (Annex F) or is illegible or incomplete, the EPO will inform the party immediately. Where the deficiencies cannot be remedied during the VICO, the document or the part thereof that is illegible or incomplete will be deemed not to have been received.

Other attachments may be sent in any format which can be opened by the EPO and which can be reproduced in a legible form. Otherwise they will be deemed not to have been received.

If an attachment is infected with a computer virus or contains other malicious software, it will be deemed to be illegible. The EPO is not obliged to receive, open or process any such attachment.

Further information can be found in the decision of the President of the EPO dated 13 May 2020 (OJ EPO 2020, A71).