Decommissioning of online filing (CMS) IMMINENT (31 December 2021)

As users will know, the EPO intends to decommission its online filing service known as CMS at the end of this month (31 December 2021). A replacement web-based filing service Online Filing 2.0 was launched on 1 April 2021.(The eOLF and web-form filing services are not affected by this announcement.)

While users are switching, nevertheless more than 1500 submissions were filed via CMS in the last week of November. All CMS users are strongly encouraged to revise their online filing processes urgently to ensure that they are fully operational in Online Filing 2.0 and/or eOLF well before the year-end.

Users having difficulty in the transition from CMS should of course seek support from the EPO Customer Support without delay.

epi’s Online Communications Committee (OCC) has been in communication with the EPO to highlight some concerns over the speed of the transition and the loss of certain functionality. Members with serious concerns about the transition are welcome to contact OCC via occ@patentepi.org.