The Austrian Patent Office announced on its website on 24 September that its electronic patent filing platform Online Filing Patent has been upgraded, and that frequent users save several working steps from now on. The platform, accessed through the ID Austria login, is used to file and centrally manage patent applications, utility model applications, supplementary protection certificate applications and the related subsequent submissions. The upgrade adds four practical features, the first being an address book in which frequently used names and addresses of applicants, inventors and others are stored centrally and auto-filled into forms, with the contacts also available to other users in the same organisation.
The second lets subsequent submissions be uploaded in a single step, so that the description, claims, abstract and any figures go up together in one operation rather than separately; the third is a combined sign-and-send step for users holding both rights, who can sign and send documents in one step; and the fourth is a considerably leaner application PDF that uses less paper when printed.
The office says the features are aimed in particular at people who work in teams and deal with patent applications frequently, and that the upgrade was implemented in close cooperation with the European Patent Office and thoroughly tested before launch.
This is not a change to substantive patent law, but for agencies it deserves more attention than routine institutional news because it directly affects Austrian patent filing, subsequent submissions, team permissions and case procedures: the shared address book means that applicant details for a large portfolio of one company no longer have to be re-entered case by case, and merging signing and sending requires firms to look again at how authority is divided.
J&C recommends that agencies and corporate IP departments with patent, utility model or SPC work in Austria update their procedures: assign an owner for the organisation's address book and standardise applicant and inventor entries; prepare subsequent submissions as one package of description, claims, abstract and figures; decide under the team's permission settings whether one operator should hold both signing and sending rights and add a pre-sending check; and watch for parallel changes in the EPO's own online filing tools.
Source: www.patentamt.at
