Patent Law & Practice at a Glance – December 2025

UKIPO update

PCT fee changes

The UKIPO is updating the schedule of fees it collects when acting as a Receiving Office under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The updated fee schedule came into effect on 1 January 2026 and can be accessed here.

UK-China IP

The UKIPO publishes a newsletter targeted at UK stakeholders and includes updates on recent development in Chinese IP. The latest edition of this newsletter can be found here.

Monthly filing statistics: patents, trade marks and designs

The latest month’s statistics are now available here. Statistics for previous months can be found here.

Customer service standards

The latest update on how the UKIPO are doing relative to the targets they have set themselves can be found here.

EPO update

Filing of sequence listings

With the decommissioning of the EPO’s desktop-based Online Filing tool on 31 December 2025, the possibility of using it to file European or international (PCT) applications on CD-ROM or DVD will cease to exist. However, sequence listings that have a data size exceeding the upload limit in the current filing tools will still have to be submitted on a data carrier. This option is also retained for sequence listings filed as part of a paper submission.

As of 1 January 2026, WIPO Standard ST.26 sequence listings may be filed online using Online Filing 2.0, the EPO Contingency Upload Service, or where applicable, ePCT or MyEPO. Within MyEPO, files containing standard-compliant sequence listings may be uploaded in a ZIP file when performing any of the permitted procedural acts and requests.

For XML sequence listings that exceed the maximum upload size setting of the electronic filing tools (currently 50 MB), as well as for XML sequence listings submitted with applications or other documents filed on paper, applicants and patent proprietors have the additional option of submitting sequence listings on an accepted data carrier, i.e. CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R discs and USB flash drives. Such data carriers must be readable without any loss of information and free of any computer virus or other harmful software. More details are available here and here.

Fees for international applications: new equivalent amounts

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 (International Preliminary Examining Authority) – they must be paid in euros. Equivalent amounts in euros of the fees as fixed by WIPO are established by its Director General in accordance with the Directive of the PCT Assembly relating to the establishment of equivalent amounts of certain fees. The Director General of WIPO has revised the equivalent amounts with effect from 1 January 2026. These are set out here.

Updates to the filing and processing of third-party observations

Following a review of EPO online services and taking into account feedback received from users, including MyEPO pilot participants, as of 15 December 2025 the EPO has provided a simplified online form for the filing of third-party observations. Details are available here.

Updates to the handling of enquiries as to the processing of files

Adjustments are being made to the practice of handling enquiries. One notable change is that where an enquiry is made in respect of an application being processed under the PACE programme, or for which a previous enquiry has been made and where an examining communication has not been issued within the set period, the EPO will automatically issue the next action within one month of receipt of the enquiry. Full details are available here.

Restriction of PACE programme to examination only

From 1 February, it will only be possible to request PACE for examination. The EPO’s justification for the change is that the timeliness of issuing the extended/partial European search report has improved to the point where PACE is no longer required. More details available here.

PCT update

World Intellectual Property Indicators report 2025

The yearly World Intellectual Property Indicators report has been released. Drawing on 2024 filing, registration and renewal statistics from national and regional IP offices and the International Bureau of WIPO, it covers patents, utility models, trade marks, industrial designs, microorganisms, plant variety protection and geographical indications. The report finds that global patenting activity showed a record 3.7 million applications filed in 2024, a 4.9% increase from 2023 and a fifth consecutive year of growth. Please see here for further details.

New ePCT version

ePCT version 4.16 has been released with two main features:

(1) eNotification to applicants about the availability of forms and documents; and

(2) Generation of a machine-translated copy of the IB Forms in all publication languages.

The new eNotification feature enables the IB to provide applicants with notification links to issued forms accessible in ePCT on behalf of participating offices or authorities that choose to use this service. This will ensure timely and secure communication with applicants.

The new feature for generating machine-translated copy of the IB Forms will enable offices and applicants to render machine translations of the forms in any of the 10 publication languages. This enhancement will facilitate greater accessibility for offices and applicants working in different publication languages. Please see here for further details relating to ePCT.

Filing and processing in electronic form of international applications

As of 1 January 2026, the IB as Receiving office has decommissioned EPO Online Filing (eOLF) as electronic filing software and will accept international applications and other documents and correspondence in electronic form via ePCT filing. Please see here (pages 4 to 5) for further details.

New/updated PCT resources – materials for the European Qualifying Examination

To assist candidates in preparing materials for the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) for prospective European patent attorneys or for the European Patent Administration Certification (EPAC) for patent administrators, the International Bureau, in agreement with the Examination Board for the EQE and the EPAC Board, has published a special edition of the PCT Applicant’s Guide. This edition contains individual annexes and the introductions to the “International Phase” and the “National Phase” in both English and French. The PDF files have been replaced by a searchable and comprehensive version that is available for the EQE. The interactive version is accessible here.

Practical advice: the communication of the international application to the designated (and elected) offices for entry into the national phase

The following question is answered: For each international application, I receive a notice – Form PCT/IB/308 – informing the applicant of the communication of the international application to the designated offices. I am aware that I do not need to act on it but I would like to understand why I receive it.

The answer is set out here (pages 12 to 14).

Other useful links

The PCT fee tables (as of 1 November 2025) can be found here (pages 17 to 27).

A list of PCT Contracting States and Two-Letter Country Codes (as of 1 November 2025) can be found here (page 28).