The present notice defines the requirements
and arrangements for this method of fee payment. With respect to the
Notice from the European Patent Office dated 13 May 2020 concerning the
payment of fees by credit card,^[ 1 ] the present notice introduces a daily limit for credit card payments.

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.^[ 2 ] 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: American Express,^[ 3 ] 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. A daily
limit for credit card payments is set at EUR 10 000.00 per credit card
and per user account. The use of multiple credit cards is allowed,
provided that the daily limit is not exceeded. For the purpose of
determining the daily limit per user account, a company is considered to
be the holder of a user account, irrespective of whether the account
used is in the name of that company or an individual employee.
Therefore, the daily limit will also be considered to have been reached
where it is reached through the use of different user accounts of
individual employees. In the event that the daily limit is exceeded, the
EPO may block the respective credit card for further payments.

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 the chosen designated
states, and submit a separate letter listing them.

6. To pay fees for multiple applications or
patents, instead of selecting individual fees for payment, the payer can
upload fee payment files (i.e. make a batch payment) by selecting Upload fee payments file in the Fees
drop-down menu. Fee payment files can be uploaded in xml format or as
csv files. Once the files have been uploaded, the payer can still edit
the fee amounts and add further individual payments by selecting Continue paying fees.

7. As the email address indicated by the
payer is the 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).

VI. Entry into force

15. The present notice replaces the Notice
from the European Patent Office dated 13 May 2020 concerning the payment
of fees by credit card with effect from 1 October 2021.

^[ 1 ] OJ EPO 2020, A62.

^[ 2 ] epo.org/applying/online-services/fee-payment.html.

^[ 3 ] As of 1 July 2020.