The EPO is introducing a new method of fee payment, by decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 22 August 2017 concerning the payment of fees by credit card (hereinafter "the decision").

The present notice defines the requirements and arrangements for this additional method of fee payment.

I. Definitions

1. For the purposes of this notice (and the decision), the following definitions apply:

1.1 "Payment by credit card" means a credit-card-based transaction in which the amount payable is debited in full.

1.2 "Acquirer" means a bank or other financial institution contracting with the EPO to accept, approve and process, on its behalf, payments by credit card which result in a transfer of funds to the EPO. The acquirer settles these payments with the card-issuing banks.

1.3 "Payer" means a natural or legal person who holds a credit card account and allows a payment from that account.

II. Requirements

2. The EPO's credit card fee payment service (hereinafter "the service") is available on the EPO website as an online service.^[ 1 ] Users wishing to pay fees by credit card are required to register with a user name (their email address) and a password to access the service. No smart card authentication is needed.

3. The EPO currently accepts the following credit cards: Mastercard and Visa. It will bear any transaction-related charges.

III. Scope and functionalities

4. The fees payable for a specific application or patent have to be selected by choosing the procedure in question (Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), European Patent Convention (EPC) or, once available, Unitary Patent (UP)). After the fees have been selected, "credit card" has to be chosen as the method of payment. Should the applicant be entitled to a fee reduction (e.g. under Rule 6(3) EPC or in the international filing fee), the payer has to indicate the reduction in question, which will then be applied automatically.

5. The service will not actively support functionalities limited to a small number of applications, such as indicating the states for which the designation fee has been paid in the case of applications filed or entering the European phase before 1 April 2009. In such cases, the payer can manually enter, in a dedicated box, the fee amount applicable for his chosen designated states, and submit a separate letter listing them.

6. The fees payable for multiple applications or patents must be selected by the payer separately for each one, and may then be paid as one single amount at the end of the selection procedure. However, it is not possible to upload a batch payment file for multiple applications. This option is only available for deposit account holders in the online fee payment service.

7. As the email address indicated by the payer is his user name for the service, it cannot be used for more than one user account. However, the same credit card can be allocated to multiple user accounts, and multiple credit cards can be allocated to a single user account.

8. To proceed with the payment, the payer must provide all required credit card information, such as its 16-digit number and its security code. The information disclosed by the payer is encrypted, and the credit card details may then be reused for subsequent transactions.

9. After submitting the payment order, the payer will promptly receive a (printable) confirmation on screen that the transaction has been approved, including the date of payment as defined in Article 3 of the decision. This confirmation is issued after the EPO receives approval of the transaction from the acquirer.

10. The time zone for determining the date of payment as defined in Article 3 of the decision is that applicable at the EPO's Munich site, i.e. Central European Time.

11. The service includes a payment history functionality. In this dedicated area of the service, payers may view the fees already paid and download transaction confirmations. Each transaction confirmation includes detailed information about the fees paid for a specific application or patent, and the date on which the transaction was approved.

12. An approved credit card transaction cannot be revoked.

IV. Refunds

13. Refunds of fees paid by credit card will be subject to the general principles governing refunds at the EPO (e.g. via a deposit account held at the EPO, see Rules relating to Fees, Guidelines for Examination in the EPO, Part A, Chapter X, 10.3). The EPO will not make any refunds into the credit card account.

V. Safeguards

14. Without prejudice to Article 4(2) of the decision, general safeguards under the EPC and PCT will apply if payments made by credit card are delayed, for instance due to the unavailability of, or a general breakdown in, any of the means of electronic communication permitted by the President of the EPO (Rules 134(1) and (5) EPC, Rule 82quater.1(a) PCT).