Filing of applications by means of electronic communication
European patent applications and international (PCT) applications may be filed with the EPO in electronic form either online or on electronic data carriers (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 10 November 2015, OJ EPO 2015, A91 9 May 2018, OJ EPO 2018, A45). At present, the data carriers permitted are CD-R as per ISO 9660 and DVD-R or DVD+R (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.5). Unless the use of other software is permitted, documents making up a European or an international patent application in electronic form must be prepared using either
the EPO Online Filing (OLF), by packaging and submitting the documents using the software or the PaTrAS software (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 5 February 2015, OJ EPO 2015, A26, Art. 2 of the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.5, and the Notice from the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.6); provided by the EPO, 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, the data carriers permitted are CD-R as per ISO 9660 and DVD-R or DVD+R (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 July 2007, Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.5);
the EPO case management system (CMS)(see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 11 March 2015, OJ EPO 2015, A27), also referred to as "new online filing (CMS)",; or
the EPO web-form filingWeb-Form Filing service (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 10 September 2014, OJ EPO 2014, A98).
Other documents may also be filed electronically in proceedings under the EPC (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 10 November 2015, OJ EPO 2015, A919 May 2018, OJ EPO 2018, A45).
European patent applications may also be filed in electronic form with the competent national authorities of those contracting states which so permit.
