What we see today is some new user-friendliness on the part of the European Patent Office. EPO is now making it even easier than before for PCT applicants to receive communications electronically from ISA/EP and IPEA/EP.
By way of background, let’s remind ourselves about some of the very important types of communications that a PCT applicant might receive from an ISA or an IPEA. By far the most frequent and routine is the International Search Report and Written Opinion.
But as a first example suppose that the ISA were to find that the computer-readable sequence listing that the applicant provided (at the time of filing the PCT application) was not good enough. The ISA would need to mail out a Form PCT/ISA/225 which establishes a short time limit for handing in a better sequence listing. (A related possibility is that the applicant might simply have have failed to provide a computer-readable sequence listing at all in an application in which such a sequence listing was needed.) The applicant (or practitioner would like to receive this Form ISA/225 as quickly as possible, so as to be able to respond timely.
As a second example suppose that the ISA were to find the need to mail out an Invitation to Pay Additional Fees (Form PCT/ISA/206) which establishes a short time limit for handing in the additional fees. (This form is what a US filer would compare to a “restriction requirement”.) Just as in first example above, the applicant (or practitioner would like to receive this Form ISA/206 as quickly as possible, so as to be able to respond timely.
ISAs and IPEAs differ from one to the next in their level of user-friendliness on such communications. Even now in 2026, ISA/US and IPEA/US falls short in user-friendliness as to its ways of communicating such things as ISA/225 and ISA/206 to applicants and practitioners.
Before about 2022, EPO’s only way to mail out things such as Forms ISA/225 and ISA/206 was on paper, due to strict EPO limits on the use of electronic communications. But in 2022, ISA/EPO and IPEA/EPO went to quite a lot of work to set up a special system of “mailboxes”. These PCT mailboxes provided by the EPO made things more user-friendly for the PCT applicant that had selected ISA/EP or IPEA/EP as the applicant’s choice of International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Searching Authority. I blogged about this good news from EPO — see:
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- blog article entitled Learn how to receive ISA/EP correspondence electronically rather than by postal mail dated June 11, 2023 and
- blog article entitled EPO’s new system for PCT applicants to receive ISR/WOs electronically dated November 24, 2022 and
- blog article entitled How to get the “+Request PCT Link” button dated November 30, 2022.
Now in 2026, the EPO has chosen to be even more user-friendly to its ISA and IPEA customers. I heard about this from alert blog reader Elisabeth Landstorfer (LinkedIn profile). Starting on June 1, 2026, EPO will provide such communications through ePCT for PCT applicants that choose to request electronic communications. You can see this good news in two places:
The practice tip for the PCT applicant that has selected EPO as ISA is to check the box in the PCT Request in which the applicant requests electronic communications. Likely as not, the PCT applicant has for many years been trendy, modern and up-to-date in the habit of checking this box. But now as of June 1, 2026, the checking of this box will lead to a new and improved category of user-friendliness on the part of ISA/EP and IPEA/EP.
Kudos to the EPO for finding yet another way to be user-friendly! And thanks to Elisabeth Lansdorfer for tipping me off about this development.
Fantastic news!