OJ EPO 2017, A97 - Notice from the President of the European Patent Office dated 7 November 2017 concerning the days on which EPO filing offices are closed in 2018

1. Under Rule 134(1) EPC, time limits expiring on a day on which at least one EPO filing office is not open for receipt of documents (closing days) are extended until the first day thereafter on which all the filing offices are open for receipt of documents and on which ordinary mail is delivered.

OJ EPO 2017, A98 - List of professional representatives before the European Patent Office [ 1 ]

Contracting state

AT	Austria
	Amendments

OJ EPO 2017, A99 - Internship for patent professionals - Praktika Intern 2018 – working with examiners

OJ EPO 2017, A100 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 23 October 2017 concerning fee payments via bank transfer

1. Fee payments to the EPO bank account at Commerzbank AG must be made in EUR and transferred without charge to the payee.

2. On the bank transfer, the payer must give the following payment-reference information:

OJ EPO 2017, A101 - Guidance for the payment of fees, expenses and prices

The fees guidance currently applicable is set out in OJ EPO 2016, A26.

The current schedule of fees and expenses of the EPO is set out in supplementary publication 2, OJ EPO 2016.

Fee information is also published on the EPO website: www.epo.org/fees.

OJ EPO 2017, A102 - Fees for international applications: new equivalent amounts

1. The amounts of the fees and reductions listed under point 3 are fixed by WIPO and expressed in Swiss currency (Rule 96 PCT). However, where these fees must be paid to the EPO - in its function as receiving Office or IPEA - they must be paid in euros.

OJ EPO 2017, A103 - NL Netherlands

Change of contact details

The contact details of the Netherlands Patent Office have changed; its address however remains the same.

The full contact information is now as follows:

Octrooicentrum Nederland
(Netherlands Patent Office)
Prinses Beatrixlaan 2
2595 AL Den Haag

OJ EPO 2017, A104 - PT Portugal

New fee rates

By Resolution No. 780/2017 regarding fees, published on 22 August 2017,^[ 1 ] some patent fees of the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) have been changed.

Applicants for and proprietors of European patents with effect in Portugal are advised that from 1 September 2017 the following rates apply:

OJ EPO 2017, A105 - National law relating to the EPC: 18th edition

The information brochure "National law relating to the EPC" has been revised in agreement with the EPC contracting states and the validation and extension states. The 18th edition of this brochure (October 2017) is available only online as a printable PDF file on the EPO website.

OJ EPO 2017, A106 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 5 December 2017 concerning the programme on search strategies

1. On 1 November 2015, the European Patent Office (EPO) launched a pilot programme aimed at testing whether and to what extent a new information sheet ("Information on Search Strategy") containing additional information regarding the search performed by the examiner could be useful to applicants and third parties.^[ 1 ]