Report of the Online Communication Committee
Our last report for epi Information was in issue 3/2024. OCC members are busy (as always) in various activities. Slightly fuller reports can be found in the papers for Council meetings.
An OCC annual meeting took place in Munich on 15 October 2024. This was in physical/ hybrid form for the first time since the pandemic and since election of the new OCC. A long list of topics and issues was captured for discussion the annual meeting between OCC and EPO which took place on 6th December 2024.
Some OCC members and other epi delegates also participated with experts from EPO and member states, in a TOSC meeting (Technical and Operational Support Committee of the EPO Administrative Council) on 5th November 2024 and in European Patent Network IT Cooperation Roundtables in January 2025.
There do not seem to have been any major incidents, following the retiral of smart cards at the end of 2024. Additionally, we know that eOLF may be retired completely at the end of 2025, and already EPO no longer supports NPOs if they need help to amend their procedures in eOLF. It would be good to hear from members in those countries where eOLF is used for national procedures, whether there are any problems accessing eOLF or alternative national services for these procedures. In the above meetings, OCC members asked EPO and NPOs to pay attention to the completeness and accuracy of the information they publish, for example in service documentation and user interface screens, and in National Law Relating to the EPC. This is particularly important as the online systems are in a period of transition.
MyEPO pilot group sessions continue on a roughly monthly basis, with several OCC members and associates, as well as numerous other EPAs and patent administrators are active in these sessions. Details of EPO’s MyEPO services and latest IT Roadmap is available online at https://www.epo.org/en/applying/myepo-services/interact.
The Legal Interactive Platform mentioned in our previous article was released generally. In pilot form, pilot users had found this AI tool to be useful for researching legal/procedural questions within EPO legislation (EPC, Guidelines etc) and case law. Unfortunately, after launch we formed the impression that the tool had somehow lost something in both the relevance and reliability of answers. EPO is investigating and we hope the early promise will be realised.
A new searchable database of representatives was launched, and we continued our collaboration with epi Presidium and Secretariat, as well as the EPO to make sure that members were well informed about the consequence. EPO received 1500+ requests to update data in the weeks leading to the launch, so our publicity efforts must have been successful!
The new Third Party Observations platform is still close to launch, but with some wrinkles still to be ironed out.
We will be in contact with epi delegates to SACEPO-WPR (Working Party on Rules), to coordinate responses on digital transformation points on the agenda for the 12/03/2025 WPR meeting. Improvements to legal safeguards in Rule 134 are anticipated.
Collaborative projects mentioned in the previous article continue. The AI guidelines developed by the Professional Conduct Committee were launched at the November Council with a broad welcome.
Together with a colleague from EPPC I participated for the first time in the PCT Working Group meeting at WIPO in Geneva. This body with representatives from the PCT states and PCT authorities advises the PCT Assembly on potential law changes. A number of provisions relating broadly to electronic filing and processing of applications were debated:
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epi spoke on behalf of users to encourage improvement on the standard ST.26 and software relating to sequence listings. Having been briefed by members of epi’s Biotech Committee, we were able to share thoughts with colleagues from offices and other user organisations. A new version of the WIPO Sequence software will be released for testing in a pilot group. This will address many (but not all) user wishes, and will also incorporate full validation, previously only available within the offices.
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There was detailed discussion of proposed rules to strengthen the safeguards for users when entry into the national/regional phase is potentially allowed to be made online only at some offices. We were pleased to hear some national delegations speak of concern for their users, including for example the small minority who prefer still to file on paper, and who may not as a matter of fact have an email address. Modified proposals for new rules were sketched out and will be finalised at a future meeting.
Thanks always are due to the OCC members and associates for their hard work and enthusiasm, and to Susanne Ullmann and all the colleagues in the Secretariat. Thanks also to the equally enthusiastic epi members in in Council and elsewhere who keep us informed of issues arising in their daily work.
As always, we remind members that EPO Support team provide generally provide a very effective and immediate support for your IT issues. In case of difficulty or dissatisfaction, you can always contact occ@patentepi.org.
