Online Filing 2.0 Blocks Innovation in Europe
Online Filing 2.0 is nothing short of a barrier to innovation in Europe. Instead of simplifying the patent process, it has created a daily nightmare for users. Every task that should be straightforward costs unnecessary time and energy, draining resources from the very professionals who are supposed to focus on fostering innovation. The platform is slow, unintuitive, and riddled with usability issues. Routine actions such as form filing, document handling, and user management feel clumsy and unreliable. Migrating data, setting up rights, or dealing with missing functionalities often requires extra effort that adds no value for applicants or representatives. The system has become an obstacle, not a tool. The EPO constantly asks users for feedback, yet nothing ever seems to change. In fact, it shouldn’t take user feedback at all to recognize that the platform is fundamentally broken—anyone with minimal awareness can see it immediately. Asking for more feedback only underlines how little has been done with years of complaints from the profession. Rather than streamlining European patent procedures, Online Filing 2.0 actively undermines them. It wastes time, increases frustration, and ultimately damages confidence in the EPO’s digital services. This software is not progress; it is regression. If innovation in Europe is truly the EPO’s mission, Online Filing 2.0 is an outright contradiction of that goal.
By Gustave C.