http://www.epo.org/service-support/availability-of-online-services/2020/20201211.html
Content reproduced from the Website of the European Patent Office as permitted by their terms of use.
Owing to technical maintenance
work, the following online services will be temporarily unavailable between
13.00 hrs on 27 December and 13.00 hrs on 30 December 2020 CET:
- Online Fee Payment /payment by credit card
- MyFiles / Mailbox
- European Patent Register
- Espacenet
- Filing of Third-Party Observations by the public
- Smart card activation
- eTendering
Users should assume that other
EPO online services may also be unavailable during this period.
However, the following online
services will remain available during that period, namely:
- Online filing
- New online filing (CMS)
- Web-form filing
- Online Filing 2.0
- Filing by fax
- Filing to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office
(including PCT-SAFE) - epo.org – the EPO website will be available, but
only with static web-pages and limited functionality. The following parts will not work: interactive features
(e.g. search engines), contact forms, file downloads, and the display of
electronic tender procedures.
We apologise for any
inconvenience.
During the maintenance period our
User Services will still offer basic support during business hours. Please be
informed that User Services is only reachable by phone during this time.
The days on which the
above-mentioned online services will not be available are days on which the
Office is closed (see OJ EPO 2019, A97). Therefore any time limits expiring on
these days are extended to the first day thereafter on which the Office is open,
that is Monday 4 January 2021 (see OJ EPO 2020, A115).
Applicants are reminded of the procedures
and safeguards which apply under the EPC and the PCT in case of unavailability of any filing or fee payment
services (OJ EPO 2020, A120).
Please always quote the reference
number indicated above when addressing the EPO in relation to this issue.
11.12.2020, 09:30 h