Report of the Online Communications Committee
J. Gray (GB), Chair
Introduction
OCC members have remained busy in various pilots, ‘working groups’, ‘focus groups’ and ‘round tables’, some of which are discussed below. The new UPC Case Management System became a whole new topic for urgent investigation and support of members. As OCC Chair I have joined in epi Board meetings and in the regular ‘bilateral’ meetings with the EPO president and his team. OCC members will continue to join the TOSC meetings as epi observers (Technical and Operational Support Committee of the EPO Admin Council – EPO and national office experts cooperation).
In February 2023 there was a good meeting of SACEPO-EPP, where a few OCC members meet EPO experts along with other representatives of industry and professional bodies, from Europe and abroad. Increasingly we liaise with the other European contributors to get the most out of the meeting. After some rather frustrating (even alarming) experiences last year, developments at the EPO side nowadays are increasingly positive, and it is evident that the EPO is addressing more and more the issues identified as a priority by users. We are planning for a last meeting of this OCC with the EPO, before a new committee is elected at C95.
EPO’s MyEPO Roadmap 2023-2024
Of interest to all epi members is the roadmap for various IT developments. The plans for various changes have become much more concrete and should now allow planning by users, for transition to new systems. In Annex 1 the Roadmap is laid out, in the June 2023 edition although timings are of course provisional. Detailed explanations have been published in the OJEPO May 2023 edition https://new.epo.org/en/legal/official-journal/2023/05/a50.html.
MyEPO Portfolio
MyEPO Portfolio is maturing steadily, and any major new features are being tested in the pilot groups, before being released to all users. Several OCC members are active in the pilot group, among a wide range of participants from private practice and industry. Paralegals increasingly get into the detailed use and evaluation. Some of the new features are long-awaited improvements, responsive to user feedback.
Imminent developments include:
- A first API to download MyEPO mailbox communications automatically. A sub-group of pilot users has been formed, which includes IT providers who make the popular IP management systems.
- Alternatives to the smart card (MyEPO Portfolio and Central Fee Payment) (see below)
- Requests for change of representation
- Improved integration with Central Fee Payment (payment with deposit account)
- Portfolio access administered by company administrators
- Opposition cases visible in the portfolio
- Interaction with examiners, including with editing of shared documents.
Administration of users, associations etc.. is facilitated by the new systems, but the new system also exposes when EPO records are out of date as to who is still with which firm, etc.. EPAs, firm administrators and management need to pay attention to the updating of records of associations, access to unpublished cases, Mailbox, smart cards etc.. Even if you don’t use MyEPO Portfolio day-to-day, use it to review such permissions.
Users can migrate now to MyEPO Portfolio, from the original Mailbox and MyFiles services. There is no need to make a sudden switch, as both systems can be used in parallel. However, the old system will be switched off mid-2024. Online Filing 2.0 will also be integrated into MyEPO Portfolio in due course.
UP and UPC IT infrastructure
OCC continued to support LitCom in submissions to the UPC Preparatory Committee concerning the UPC CMS. Unfortunately, quite a lot of bugs and outages have arisen, and users have not received quick solutions from the UPC team.
The epi members’ Forum has been an invaluable medium for sharing issues and solutions. I thank Tassilo Meindl for keeping track of all the UPC CMS IT issues and assisting LitCom in presenting them to the UPC team.
Online Filing of patent applicaitons
Online Filing 2.0 has settled down and seems quite popular among its users. The opposition form 2300 is now available, with user comments requested.
More countries are developing national filing systems based on the new “Front Office” platform, after the proof of concepts by Lithuania and Spain. Other countries with ongoing/agreed implementations include: Greece, Macedonia, Finland, Netherlands, Iceland, Belgium, Luxemburg. Other countries (e.g. United Kingdom) will be providing their own alternative. The contribution of our user representative Ben Grau has helped greatly in making this a success.
epi members will want to ensure their own national offices have Front Office or some other service established as soon as possible, so that there is no rush when, one day, the original eOLF system is turned off. However, we have been assured that eOLF is safe until the end of 2024, at least.
Alternatives to smartcards
EPO plans on decommissioning the existing Smart Cards completely by the end of 2024. No new smart cards will be issued after the end of 2023. During 2023, all EPO systems (including eOLF) will be updated to use a new two-factor authentication (“2FA”) platform. Users will be able to use their smart card and the new authentication system in parallel, so that firms and individuals can transition gradually to using the new system before the smart cards become inactive. OCC members will be among the pilot users testing the 2FA system. If it all goes to plan, the transition should be reasonably smooth.
New EPO website epo.org
The EPO website is being redeveloped, with the aim of being more usable on a variety of modern devices. The new format can be seen already in e.g. the Legal Texts part of the website, and the Contact form. New ways of presenting information for non-expert users are being developed next. I am making submissions to ensure that the new pages will not mask from users the importance of professional advice.
New Contingency Upload service – fax filing no more
The EPO is also developing an alternative to fax filing for “rescue”/emergency filings. This will need to be launched and tested in good time before incoming fax lines (and Web Form Filing) are abolished (scheduled mid-2024). According to the Decision of the President at https://new.epo.org/en/legal/official-journal/2023/05/a48.html, this service will only accept documents in Annex F-compliant format. As a matter of principle, OCC has always argued that imposing formal requirements before a person can establish a filing date is contrary to the EPC. What if the nature of the emergency is such that the user has trouble making compatible PDFs? This question will be taken up directly with the EPO and within SACEPO.
Other systems
Various other IT systems are up for discussion. Improvements have been requested in the Third Party Observations form, Register Alert, and digital signatures on assignments, for example. Fax notification (outgoing from the EPO) has been abolished. OCC and other users have impressed upon the EPO that regular Mailbox communications are no use for urgent matters, such as oral proceedings. EPO will seek email addresses for such occasions.
Conclusion
Thanks always to the members outside of OCC who report to us the random issues they face with EPO IT systems. The breadth of expertise among our members can be seen in the excellent forum discussions on UPC CMS, for example. You can submit issues and information directly to the OCC Chair at OCC@patentepi.org.
