The international search fee is refunded where[Rule 16.2; 16.3; Rule 41; OJ EPO 2019, A5; OJ EPO 2017, A115; OJ EPO 2020, A68; ]

Refunds are made to a deposit account held with the EPO or to a bank account. Since 1 April 2019 the EPO has no longer made refunds by cheque, and the EPO does not make refunds to credit cards. In general, the EPO will refund fees to any deposit account that the party to the proceedings before it indicates in its refund instructions. Parties are therefore also able to indicate a deposit account held by a third party.

The fee for international preliminary examination is reduced by 75% under the same conditions as for the reduction of the international search fee (GL/PCT‑EPO A‑III, 8.2).[OJ EPO 2020, A4; ]

8.4.1 Reduction of the additional preliminary examination fee

If the applicant fulfils the requirements for reduction of the international search fee, any additional search fee is validly paid upon payment of the reduced amount.

The international filing fee is reduced by 90% if the requirements stipulated in point 5 of the PCT Schedule of Fees are met.[]

For filings at the RO/EP, the reduction applies only if the applicant is a natural person who is a national of and resides in an EPC contracting state complying with the criteria under point 5(a) PCT Schedule of Fees (an updated list can be found in the Euro-PCT Guide, point 42.24.015).

If the application is filed with the RO/EP by more than one applicant, only one of them needs to be a national and