When does EPO send notifications in electronic format?

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vin.g
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2022 12:39 pm

When does EPO send notifications in electronic format?

Post by vin.g » Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:37 pm

I recently created an account and I submitted an application soon after the account was activated. I was so much in a hurry that I did not activate the EPO mailbox, but in the application form I specified that I expected notifications "exclusively in electronic form" and I specified my personal email address.

However two days ago I received by letter a PCT/RO/106 form with an invitation to correct the application because it had a small formal error. Fortunately this letter arrived, but the postal service here is unreliable.

What should I do to receive notifications in electronic format in the future? Activating the EPO mailbox will suffice or certain forms will always be sent by letter?


EPO / Innovation Networks
Posts: 724
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:36 pm

Re: When does EPO send notifications in electronic format?

Post by EPO / Innovation Networks » Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:36 pm

Dear vin.g,
The EPO does not send official communications by email. It does allow official communications to be accessed electronically and downloaded via the EPO Mailbox.

The EPO's Mailbox service allows communications from the EPO to be delivered electronically via the EPO online services portal to registered Mailbox recipients (professional representatives, registered lawyers or applicants) and accessed and processed by any authorised EPO smart card user within an organisation.
Up to 99% of EPO communications can be delivered to the EPO Mailbox
When a communication is ready to be sent, a check is carried out to see if the Mailbox is active for the representative. If it is, the communication is transmitted electronically, and not by post.
Although it was designed specifically for EP communications, the Mailbox can also receive communications relating to PCT files, provided the representative is already registered to act in relation to EP files.

If the file has already been published email notifications can be sent from the European Patent Registe to notify of any submissions to the file. The submissions can be downloaded as PDFs.
There are two notification services you can sign up to.

Register Alert
Register Alert is an application in the European Patent Register that allows you to monitor changes to published EP and Euro-PCT applications. When you set up a Register Alert account you can opt to receive an email alert every time a change triggering a Register event occurs to one of your selected files.
Register Alert has secure access with HTTPS.

Create an account
Register Alert is free to use. You can create an account from the Register view via Register Alert login. Once logged in, you will see additional features in the Register's Search results view which will enable you to add and delete files from your list of applications. There is also a new Monitored applications tab in which you can view and organise your list of monitored applications.
From the Monitored applications view you can access the settings of your account via the Preferences link. Here you can customise the settings of your monitored applications and e-mail notifications, i.e. by adding additional e-mail addresses to the account or determining which events trigger a notification.
A single account can monitor up to 5 000 files and you can assign more than one e-mail to an account so that colleagues and/or associates also receive e-mail notifications from this account.
If you need to monitor more than 5 000 files with the same e-mail address, you can set up a new account with a different user name.

Email alert
The email alert function is a European Patent Register service which allows users to monitor activity relating to patent application files (or “file wrappers”).
The service is available in the Global Dossier (EP and CN dossiers only), All documents and Patent family views.
To subscribe, simply click on the Email link in these views and enter your email address. You will then receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription.
In the All documents and Global Dossier views you can use the service to trigger an email notification each time changes occur in an individual file.
In the Patent family view you can use it to monitor changes to a list of patent family members (EP and CN patent family members only), where available.
You can unsubscribe from the service by clicking on the link Unsubscribe to this automatically generated e-mail in the email notifications.

PCT Communications
Although there is a tick box on the PCT RO101 form, for the filer to request notifications to be sent by email, this service is available at the discretion of the elected office.
Since the EPO does not allow email as an official form of communication, this option is not available to those filing to the EPO.

At the EPO, the EPO Mailbox is currently our only possibility to provide documents electronically. The Mailbox was designed for representatives of EP applications to receive communications electronically, and can also send PCT communications to those representatives who have been set up to receive EP communications.  
Unfortunately, only registered representatives of EP applications can register as Mailbox recipients at this stage, but we are working towards making the service available to others as well.   

In the meantime, WIPO does provide an option to receive electronic communications via ePCT, and since there is a frequent digital exchange between EPO and WIPO, documents are available almost as quickly via ePCT as they would be via Mailbox.   
You can find details here :arrow: https://www.wipo.int/pct-safe/en/

If you still have questions, please contact us via our online contact form.

Best regards,
EPO User Services


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