Decommissioning of online filing (CMS) with effect from 1 January 2022

The EPO has announced that the existing web-based online filing service (known as CMS) will be decommissioned with effect from 1 January 2022. It will be replaced by the EPO's new web-based filing service Online Filing 2.0, which was launched on 1 April 2021.

Additional information on the practical aspects of registration and rights administration for Online Filing 2.0 and data migration is available under dedicated FAQ's. The eOLF and web-form filing services are not affected by this announcement.

epi's Online Communications Committee Chair, John Gray recommends that users of CMS should begin to switch without delay to Online Filing 2.0, so that they can resolve any training and technical issues in good time before the end of the year. “Particularly allow plenty of time if you have address book data, templates etc. to open and export from CMS, if you have many users (who need to be assigned roles in the new system, one-by-one), or if you rely on CMS as an archive of past submissions (export these before they are lost).”
He also recommends that users be prepared with the back-up methods they will use in the case of any failure of their preferred EPO method. The various EPO solutions are explained at https://www.epo.org/applying/online-services/online-filing.html. Of course, fax remains available in theory, but is not always reliable.

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