The President of the European Patent Office, having regard to Articles 5(2) and 7(2) of the Rules relating Fees, has decided as follows:

Article 1

A validation functionality is added to Online Fee Payment, by means of the following new point 6.9 ADA:

"6.9 Validation and rejection of payments in Online Fee Payment

6.9.1 Debit orders included in a batch debit order which relate to the payment of renewal fees for "definitively closed" European patent applications or granted patents will be automatically rejected.

6.9.2 Debit orders included in a batch debit order which relate to the payment of fees for transfer of rights for "definitively closed" European patent applications will be automatically rejected.

6.9.3 For the above purposes, a European patent application is considered to be definitively closed if the loss of rights or the refusal of the application has become final, i.e. in particular if

(i) the application is withdrawn, deemed to be withdrawn or refused and no means of redress, except a request for re-establishment of rights, has been filed,

(ii) the decision on the means of redress is negative and no appeal has been filed, or

(iii) the decision on the appeal is negative or the appeal is withdrawn.

6.9.4 A message confirming that the debit order could not be carried out is generated by the system after validation, and stored in the account history."

Article 2

Entry into force

This decision enters into force on 1 July 2017.

Done at Munich, 6 June 2017

Benoît BATTISTELLI

President