Rule 24(1) - OJ 2000, 458

Notice dated 12 September 2000 concerning correspondence with the Office via e-mail

- OJ 2000, 458 -

The present notice supplements that published in EPO Official Journal No. 7/1999, 509.

Since September 1999, the EPO has gradually been providing its staff with e-mail facilities. At present, however, e-mail has no legal force in proceedings under either the EPC or PCT (see also Guidelines A-IX, 2.5, and C-VI, 6), and thus cannot be used validly to perform any procedural act and in particular to comply with time limits.

E-mail exchanges should therefore be confined to matters at present dealt with by telephone, such as arranging dates for interviews. They should be initiated by EPO staff. Applicants are of course under no obligation to take up any such offer. The EPO will take such steps as are necessary to ensure that any exchange of information is duly documented on the file.

Since the confidentiality guarantees required for international preliminary examination proceedings under the PCT cannot be provided, information of a substantive nature should not be exchanged via e-mail in this context.

The Office again points out that it cannot guarantee that e-mail communications, especially those initiated by the applicant, will be placed on file in time or processed before the expiry of any relevant deadline. Urgent queries or communications should therefore be sent by fax only, to the EPO's central fax number in Munich [(+49-89) 2399-4465], indicating the application number, the stage reached in the proceedings, and the reason why an EPO response is urgently required.