Report of the Online Communications Committee
An OCC annual meeting is planned for 29 October 2025, in physical/hybrid form for the first time since the pandemic and since election of the new OCC. The annual meeting with EPO (video only) is scheduled for 20 November 2025.
Earlier in the summer, OCC member Ben Grau accompanied Peter Thomsen as members of the newly-formed Business Europe/epi joint delegation at the IP5 Heads/IP5 Industry meeting in Tianjin, CN. OCC members are well placed to participate in IP5 industry working groups on IT, standardisation etc.. I attended Main SACEPO with epi Presidium and other colleagues. Of high concern was EPO’s proposal to publish a Database of Legal Practitioners, alongside the Database of Professional Representatives. epi spoke against this as a matter of principle, as did UNION. In the background, we assisted VP Hartvichova in drafting suggestions to improve the presentation of such dual lists, if EPO is minded to proceed. The status of the proposal is not clear.
Also in SACEPO I cautioned that publication of associations and association memberships is potentially a disruptive measure, deterring some users from using associations at all. Tailored, self-administered association membership was foreseen as a key enabler for firms to allocate cases between sub-teams, implement ‘ethical walls’ and so forth. We may need await alternative solutions from the EPO IT team.
MyEPO pilot group sessions were paused for the summer, but resume again on 30 September 2025. More information on EPO’s coming developments and latest IT Roadmap is available as always on their website here https://www.epo.org/en/applying/myepo-services/understand.
In the meantime, EPO is promoting EPO User Day 2025, 23-24 September. The online version of this traditional event now attracts thousands of attendees. https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/events/epo-user-day-2025
Colours and DOCX filling proposed implementation timeline
The DOCX filing option remains in pilot until 1 April 2026, when it is expected to go on general release. An updated specification has been published OJ EPO 2025, A50 & OJ EPO 2025, A51. We welcome the acceptance of drawings in PDF, separate from the text. It still has some concerning features, such as the recommendation to use automatic numbering for claim paragraphs. EPO has confirmed that there are no plans to implement differential fees for DOCX vs conventional PDF filing. OCC will press to make sure that a back-up PDF can be filed along with DOCX, having legal effect if there should be a need for correction.
OCC has a sub-group working on a regular social media posting on OCC topics, collaborating with Education, PEC and EPPC as needed. Ideas for topics are welcome. Webinars and seminars will be programmed in 2026. News items from the EPO:
- Farewell eOLF: switch to Online Filing 2.0 by January 2026 06.08.2025
- Opening associations of representatives to legal practitioners 04.08.2025
- Changes to the registration of general authorisations 04.08.2025
The new Third Party Observations platform remains in pilot only, for reasons unknown.
OCC remains interested also in the revision of rules having an IT aspect (3rd Basket legal changes).
OCC has an APIs working group that has identified a number of issues relating to APIs and their documentation. A letter has been drafted to raise these with EPO.
In collaboration with LitCom, we are pleased to monitor the rollout of the UPC New CMS.
This has gone smoothly, as far as we are aware, but with a (hopefully temporary) loss of functionality for users accustomed to using APIs for UPC filings, including Opt-Outs. Some APIs are present, but needing some reprogramming at the user side. The API is working now for Optouts filing. Various points have been noted to be taken forward in cooperation with Litigation Committee.
We have no plans to present or request any decision at C100.
