FAQ

• The EPC.App and PCT.App are optimized for use with a wide variety of screen sizes, including mobile phones. For long-term use and editing, we recommend running them on a desktop computer or laptop with a mouse.
• The EPC.App / PCT.App are not installed locally, but allow you to access them as a web browser application from anywhere via an internet connection. They should work at least on the latest versions of Google-Chrome, Mozilla-Firefox, and Microsoft-Edge. Apple-Safari is not tested and Microsoft-Internet Explorer is not working. In the browser settings, javascript and pop-ups have to be enabled.
• Your Firewall has to provide access to the following URLs:
  https://www.epcapp.net
  https://my.epcapp.net
  https://ipappifyusers.b2clogin.com
  https://epcapp.blob.core.windows.net
  https://epcapp.z6.web.core.windows.net

• To acquire a license or test account, you first need to sign up for a user account. To do so, select "Sign up now" at the bottom of the login page. Your e-mail address is required to be verified, because it serves both as unique identifier for your account and for contacting you. To this end, you need to trigger the sending of a verification code to your e-mail address and enter the received code before proceeding with the password selection. The registration process is also shown in the video below.
• Your chosen password will be stored by a professional authentication service within the EU and will not be accessible by us. The service provider prescribes strong password standards. If you wish to change your password or have forgotten it, please select "Forgot your password?" at the bottom of the login page and follow the instructions to set a new one.
• After login to the user account, you can select licenses. When you log in for the first time, you will automatically be taken to the selection area. If you already have a valid license or an active test account, you can reach your user account in the EPC.App or PCT.App under "Profile" on the right side of the menu bar. There you can review your settings, change address and payment information, and purchase new licenses. The licence selection can also be accessed directly via the shop-icon.
• For each App there is only one license per user at a time. In the license overview of your user account, you can also make changes to existing licenses by selecting "Upgrade" in the box of your owned license. There you can terminate a test period early to purchase a paid license with PDF generation. Your added comments will be retained in such upgrade, as they are stored independently of the license in the user account identified by the e-mail address. You can also change a monthly subscription into an annual subscription (at the price of 10 months with additional discount options and print service availability) or a Student Edition into a Standard Edition (after passing the EQE). Your existing license will be terminated with immediate effect and a partial amount for the remaining term of the previous license will be credited in the invoice for the new license (with newly started billing period). For any inquiries about licenses that cannot be made online, please contact us by e-mail to support@ipappify.de.

• EPC.App and PCT.App use the same software platform, so that the same functions are available in both. The same login is used for both Apps and you can quickly switch between them by just clicking on "Switch to EPC/PCT.App" in the menu bar (visible if licenses for both Apps are present).
• The combination also enables bidirectional references between EPC and PCT as hyperlinks. So, in the EPC.App, links to any PCT provision of the PCT.App can be included and vice versa (possibly with a suffix, see Which abbreviations are used and what is their meaning?). Such references also work without a license of the respective second App, however, then only show the plain legal texts of the unlicensed product without any markings or comments.

• For all those who prefer to start with a classical book, EPC.App and PCT.App are also available as stand-alone paperback versions on Amazon including all authors' comments. They come in a convenient 24x17 cm format, wherein important key terms are marked in a black-and-white layout (left side of picture below). For quick access, different parts are provided with an additional edge index visible on the closed book's edge. Customers of a paperback edition, who decide to continue with the electronic version, receive a 50% discount on the first annual license of the respective online EPC.App / PCT.App.
• The more advanced study material are said electronic online versions of EPC.App and PCT.App. They include the same content in color with an individually adaptable color layout for the markings. Via the App, users can further edit the content, receive automatic updates of legal texts and authors' comments without losing own user comments, and create a printable PDF-file in A4 format (standard layout in right side of picture below). With an annual subscription of EPC.App or PCT.App, there is further the option to order a customized color paperback via our print-on-demand service.
  

• For using the print-on-demand service of the online EPC.App / PCT.App, you first need to sign up for a user account (link leads to video showing registration and book order) and acquire a paid annual license (no monthly subscription) of the respective App.
• For personalizing your book, you can change the color layout of the markings, and use the self-editing functions to add own annotations or further legal content.
• Under "Create PDF" in the menu bar, you can create a PDF as content of a paperback. By selecting the option "Print on demand" (only available for annual subscriptions) and klicking the button "Generate new PDF", a complete book with customized content and adapted page numbers will be typeset in about 6 minutes. The settings are fixed (25.4x17.8cm format with bleed, 8pt, no blank pages, no part/chapter pages) so that the other options can be ignored. When the generation is finished, you can preview the content via the link under "Download". If you like to change something, you can create a new PDF as often as needed. A suitable cover will be added automatically.
• The price for one personal print of a colored paperback of EPC.App or PCT.App as displayed on the picture below is a fixed final amount of EUR 45, including shipping costs and tax (the price reflects the manufacturer’s average costs). Shipping is available at least within the EU plus UK and CH (further countries on request).
• After selecting the button „Order Book“ next to the preferred PDF (visible once a suitable PDF is created), you will be taken to checkout showing an order summary. Please check the shipping address. It is taken from your profile where you can change it (top right in the menu). The same applies for the invoice address.

• When you place an order, you will receive a confirmation e-mail to your account address, including a further order summary. If your license includes a free print and you selected this option, we will automatically start the production and you do not need to do anything else.

  If you selected the option "Pre-payment", you will receive a second e-mail which includes a payment link. There is no payment option in the online checkout. To confirm the order, you need to pay in accordance with the instructions in the e-mail. Payment options are Paypal, credit card or bank transfer. Unpaid orders will be deleted after two weeks.

• Upon receipt of your payment, we will proceed your order to production and send you a confirmation e-mail. The estimated shipping time of the printer is 7-14 working days. Since the book is a personal print with individual content, the right of cancellation lapses once production is initiated.
• Please further note that the printed book is only for personal use of the user account holder. Distribution of additional copies to others is explicitly prohibited. There is correspondingly only one book per order which is shipped to your address. We recommend to order a new book after a legal update by the authors, in which individual user annotations will be retained.
• Print quality: Since 2023, it has proven effective to print EPC.App and PCT.App color paperbacks on high density 100g image printing paper. This paper ensures a precise color reproduction, is thin and flexible. As one important consequence, the books can naturally stay open without forcing them as typically needed in an exam situation (see picture below). It also provides long-term stability of page binding at the spine. And the books become relatively thin: about 1.8 cm thickness for EPC.App (compared to 2.5 cm for the b/w Amazon version) and about 2.5cm for PCT.App (compared to 3.5 cm on Amazon), of course still depending on the degree of customization which determines the number of pages.

• Activate edit mode (pencil icon) in the upper-right corner (visible when a content section is open) so that it becomes highlighted in green.

• Right to legal texts (annotation): Select a paragraph to be annotated, select the speech balloon icon from the vertical toolbox on the right (shown when edit mode is active), and type your comment in the grey annotation box added in the right column. Please do not confuse with notes (drawing pin icon).

• Below legal texts (and attached thereto): Select "+ new annotation", which is visible at all available positions when the edit mode is activated, and add your comment in the grey annotation box added above.
• Within legal texts (inline-annotation): Mark a text passage with the cursor, select the speech balloon icon in square brackets from the toolbox, and enter text in the square brackets added right to the marked text passage (if the icon is greyed-out, probably no text passage is marked so that no position is defined).
• Independent of other content (comment with separate title): Select “Edit Structure” at the top left of the navigation column and then the speech balloon icon “Add Comment”. Enter at least a title in the pop-up window. Move the item to the desired position in the structure overview on the left. Select the title you added and enter your comment in the text field below the title in the main window. Close the structure editor by clicking the cross icon in the top-left to return to the normal view.

• Markings of legal texts: Mark a text passage with the cursor and select a marking type from the toolbox. The marking categories "Normal", "Strong", "Time Limit", "Fee", "Language", and "Legal Consequence" are already used by authors, but can re-used. The categories "User 1" and "User 2" are only for yourself. Markings can be applied to legal texts only and not to authors’ comments (because the position of the marking would be lost with any change of the underlying comment). New markings that overlap others overwrite these in the common area. Markings can be removed by selecting a passage again and selecting the remove-icon from the toolbox. Marking styles can be changed (described under How can authors' annotations be adapted according to my personal preferences?). See also this introduction video of the EPC.App for further explanation.

  

• All annotations and changes get saved automatically (there is no separate save button). Saving takes place when another element is selected on the same page or if you navigate to another page. As long as older content is still stored in the browser cache, it can be restored using the Undo icon in the toolbar.
• To be on the safe side, you can generate as many backup PDFs as you like and they will be stored as history on our server. Authors' comments can only be hidden and thus be restored at any time.

• Authors' comments and paragraphs of legal texts (except articles) can be hidden individually, by selecting the text element and selecting the crossed eye icon at the bottom of the toolbox. Any hidden elements can be temporarily shown by activating "Show hidden elements" (eye icon next to edit mode in the top right). They can individually be re-displayed with permanent effect, by selecting the text elements (in the temporarily shown state where they are displayed hatched) and selecting the eye-icon at the bottom of the toolbox.

  Blue authors' comments cannot be edited themselves. They are the same for all users and get updated by us. If there is an error in an authors' comment, please inform us by e-mail or via "Help>Contact support" in the menu so that we can correct it at short notice and all users will benefit. A personalisation option exists by copying the content into a user comment and hiding the authors' comment.

• Contents added to articles (Rules, Protocols, G-Decisions, Comment-blocks below articles, …) can further be hidden by selecting “Edit Structure” at the top left of the navigation column, selecting the respective element and selecting the crossed eye icon in the edit menu.
• Marking styles (e.g. underline, highlight, bold, …) and text colors can be changed under menu item “Marking Styles” (gear icon in the top right), and then consistently affect all markings and texts of the changed type throughout the book, both in the web browser view and in the generated PDF. For example, the marking of all legal consequences (by default underlined in red) can be further enhanced by a red text color or red highlight, or made more distinct from other underlines on a black-and-white print by a contrast-inverted highlight or thicker underline (see pictures below). Changes are saved individually per user and can be returned to the default values. See also this introduction video of the EPC.App for further explanation.
  

• As far as possible, only widely common abbreviations are used, see table below.

• Use of these abbreviations is also necessary for adding links to other contents in comments and for assigning new contents to Articles (see How can I add further legal contents?).
  An additional "PCT"-suffix is required for PCT articles/rules in the EPC.App, and an "EPC"-suffix for EPC articles/rules in the PCT.App.

  short_textAbbreviations (incl. citation examples)

  Abbreviations (incl. citation examples)
  A. 53(b) EPC	Article (EPC in PCT.App)
  OJ 2018, A44	EPO Official Journal
  OJ 2016 SE4, A.3	EPO Official Journal Special edition / Supplementary publication
  Gazette	Official Notices (PCT Gazette)
  Prot. Recog.	Protocol on Recognition
  rO	receiving Office
  eO	elected Office
  DecP	Decision of the President
  DecAC	Decision of the Administrative Council
  dO	designated Office
  SESR	supplementary European search report
  SISR	Supplementary International Search Report
  SISA	Supplementary International Searching Authority
  EESR	Extended European Search Report
  EP	European
  EPO	European Patent Office
  EPC	European Patent Convention
  A. 2(1) Rfees	EPC Rules relating to Fees
  PCT fees, 1	PCT Schedule of fees
  Prot. Immunities	Protocol on Privileges and Immunities
  IA	International application
  IB	International Bureau
  IPE	International Preliminary Examination
  London Agr.	London Agreement
  IPEA	International Preliminary Examining Authority
  IPER	International Preliminary Examination Report
  IPRP	International Preliminary Report on Patentability
  ISA	International Searching Authority
  ISR	International Search Report
  MPEP	Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (USPTO)
  Notice EPO	Notice from the European Patent Office
  NatL IV, 4	National law relating to the EPC
  PC	Paris Convention
  PCT	Patent Cooperation Treaty
  AI, Sec. 801	PCT Administrative Instructions
  AG-INT, 1.001	PCT Applicant's Guide, International Phase
  AG-NAT, 1.001	PCT Applicant's Guide, National Phase
  RO GL	Receiving Office Guidelines
  ISPE GL	International Search and Preliminary Examination Guidelines
  Euro-PCT-AG	Euro-PCT Guide for applicants
  Prot. Staff.	Protocol on Staff Complement
  Prot. Art. 69	Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC
  CLBoA I.C.2.1	Case Law of the Boards of Appeal
  T 1173/97	Decision of the Technical Boards of Appeal
  R. 26ter.2 PCT	Rule (EPC or PCT)
  GL A-VII, 3.2	Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office
  WO-ISA	Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority
  RBoA	Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal
  REBoA	Rules of Procedure of the Enlarged Board of Appeal
  AC	Administrative Council
  AAD	Arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure
  ADA	Arrangements for deposit accounts
  UPC	Unified Patent Court
  UPCA	Agreement on a Unified Patent Court
  WDC	Washington Diplomatic Conference
  FP	Further processing
  RE	Re-establishment
  y / m / w / d	year / month / week / day
  Prot. Centr.	Protocol on Centralisation

The EPC.App / PCT.App include a comprehensive database of relevant legal contents such as all decisions of the EPO Boards of Appeal ever issued up to the last update (more than 40,000 decisions, all included with a link to the full text on the EPO website and, where available, the official abstract). These are far from being all added to the annotated text, but users can do this themselves wherever they like.

• Links to other contents in comments (e.g. Official Journal articles and decisions from the case law database) can be added, by typing an abbreviated content element (see Which abbreviations are used and what is their meaning?), marking the abbreviated content element with the cursor, selecting the chain-icon from the toolbox, and selecting from the popup of recognized elements. If the link is not generated, either the used abbreviation may be not correct or the element is not in the database (e.g. for older Official Journal articles and the most recent decisions). Such links can be used for quick navigation in the App (by Ctrl+click or just click when the edit mode is switched off).

• Contents added to articles (e.g. Rules, Decisions) can be added by selecting “Edit Structure” at the top left of the navigation column and then the chain icon “Add Linked Content”. The desired element is added by further typing the abbreviated citation (see Which abbreviations are used and what is their meaning?) and selecting the desired target (from dropdown menu). At this point, also subgroups (sub headings) can be added by selecting the folder icon “Add Group“, and added contents can be reordered by Drag-and-Drop. In the main window, contents added in this way are displayed at the corresponding position in the book and can be further marked and annotated there. See also the 2-minute video below for further explanation.

• The EPC.App and PCT.App are constructed as a database of legal texts which can be accessed and added to the books by authors and users in similar manner (see Contents added to articles). Updated elements are regularly added to the database and can then be included in the books (validity date is displayed during selection). At the scheduled update times (EPC.App in May and November / PCT.App in September), outdated elements of the legal text actually reproduced in the respective book are replaced by elements valid at the time of the update. This is done also to user additions by applying a concordance table. Outdated elements remain in the database and can still be added individually to compare them with the valid ones. An exception are the EPO Guidelines, of which only section titles and links to the EPO website are available in our database and which get updated to the latest version with automatic renumbering of references.
• Authors and users can add comments to the books, which may be assigned to the individual elements of the legal text or contain links to them. At the scheduled update times, the author comments will be fully adapted to the valid legal status. User comments which are assigned to non-amended elements remain unchanged. For amended / replaced elements, user comments are retained / transferred, but may have to be adapted subsequently, and markings and inline comments may lose their position. Links to outdated elements will be automatically replaced by the corresponding valid versions through application of the concordance table.
• All amended elements of legal texts and authors' comments are provided with blue update notes explaining changes respectively of the element corresponding to each note. This is also done for automatic amendments to user comments, if required. An overview of all update notes can be found under “Notes” in the menu bar, where you can select elements to quickly navigate to the respective positions. You can also jump from one change to the other using the back and forward buttons of the “Note Assistant” which can be activated by navigating from the notes overview. The update notes can be hidden individually can be hidden individually by selecting the note and then the crossed eye icon at the bottom of the toolbox. They can later be redisplayed by by activating "Show hidden elements" (eye icon next to edit mode in the top right). See also Authors' comments and paragraphs of legal texts.
• The update notes can also be exported to the PDF (checkbox “with update notes” for A4 under Create PDF) to track amended pages. The PDF then contains an additional overview page for all notes (with page numbers and links to the respective positions), and the explaining content of the notes is displayed on the upper left corner of each amended text element. When using same layout settings as in a previously printed A4 PDF, the exported update notes will indicate required replacement pages corresponding to your personal settings and content, but keep in mind that an amendment itself may further change subsequent page breaks. In general, replacements can be simplified by using the default “blank pages + articlewise numbering” PDF-option and replacing affected article sections completely (see also How does the PDF-generation work?). The 2-minute video below illustrates the update process and related functions.

Of course, the authors have the EQE in mind with respect to all updates:

• At the EPC.App update in May, the Examination Guidelines get updated to the version coming in force as of 1st March and replace the previous version. Like every update, it further covers Articles, Rules and Protocols of the EPC, Rules relating to Fees, Official Journal publications and case law of the Boards of Appeal, as well as correspondingly adapted authors’ comments. The legal status thus provided is intended for an early start in the preparation for the EQE in the subsequent year.
• With the EPC.App update in November, the content is then brought in line with the law in force on 31 October, as relevant for the subsequent EQE (own comments already added in the preparation are retained). Parts coming into force as of 1 November are clearly indicated and compared to their preceding versions. Further updates of the content (despite bugfixes) will be included only after the EQE, with the next May Update. In practice, it is anyway not a realistic fear to get punished in the EQE for applying provisions which enter into force after the cut-off. It is rather advisable to become familiar with changed provisions early.
• The PCT will be updated once per year with the PCT.App update in September, where the content is also brought to the legal status relevant for the subsequent EQE. Most PCT changes collectively enter into force each year on 1st July.

• Yellow user notes can be added by selecting a text block, selecting the drawing pin icon from the toolbox, and typing text in the added yellow box. Such notes will not be exported to the PDF-file and just serve to keep records of the personal work progress. Under the menu item "Notes" you can find an overview of all notes with the possibility to jump to the corresponding positions and a “Note Assistant” for jumping from one note to the next. Notes are to be distinguished from annotations, which are exported to the PDF (see also How can I add my own annotations?).
• Blue update notes are added with content updates for explaining changes by the authors. These notes can be hidden individually by each user or exported to the PDF-file (see also How do I receive updates from the authors without losing my own annotations?).

• PDFs of the EPC.App / PCT.App in A4 format can be created with any paid account (monthly or annual subscription) under "Create PDF" in the menu bar.
• LaTeX is used for the PDF-generation, i.e. from the text displayed on the website, LaTeX-code is generated, which is then typeset into PDF via a LaTeX-converter (while hidden elements and notes are ignored and a table of contents is generated). Hereby, it is attempted to reproduce the layout of the website as close as possible. Due to different page breaks and page borders as well as optimizations by the typesetting system, there are limitations to this. Please be patient, the PDF-generation of the entire EPC using this typesetting concept may take several minutes and may be delayed in case of plural parallel user requests. It is self-evident that the generated PDF files and printouts thereof are restricted to exclusive use by the registered user and may not be shared with others or duplicated for distribution.
• By default, the A4 PDF is optimized for being printed and placed into a folder. To this end, the PDF contains additional blank pages so as to place articles of the EPC / parts of the PCT always on odd numbered pages (appearing on the right side in double-sided printing for faster access). The page numbering is restarted per article so that changes to one article do not influence the page numbers of others (for ease of replacing pages). Moreover, separation pages are added between parts/chapters of the EPC / PCT with summaries of subsequent content.

• Alternatively, for optimizing the PDF to electronic reading or creating a thin bound book, said additional blank pages can be suppressed and the pages can be numbered continuously over the entire book. Independent therefrom, the default separation pages between parts/chapters of the EPC / PCT including content summaries can further be suppressed and the font size of legal texts can be reduced from a default value of 10pt to 9pt. If all page saving options are activated, the total number of pages in the PDF of the EPC.App can be reduced by more than 250 without removing any real content of the book. All options can be found on the "Create PDF" page in pulldown menus. A further convenient option to create a small-format paperback is provided by our print-on-demand service.

  

• An integrated full-text search is available under the magnifying glass icon in the menu bar. The search index covers all contents added to the books by the authors (legal texts and author comments, but no user comments). To help you find quickly what you are looking for, the results are ordered according to a relevance score which depends on the hit frequency of the searched term and the type of text passage (e.g. title, legal text, annotation). The search includes variations of searched keywords, for multiple terms any hit in arbitrary order contributes to the score, and a specific character combination can be enforced by adding quotes (e.g. "OJ 2021, A3"). Each search result further indicates the position in the book (table of contents section), the found terms (with variations) highlighted in context, and a link to the respective text element that you can follow. When you do so, you will be auto-scrolled to the relevant position in the book showing the text element then highlighted by a yellow frame. If you do not see the highlighted element because it is hidden, you can re-display it by the "Show hidden elements" function in the top right. You can further refine your search on the target page via the search function of your web browser.
• Under the menu item "Table of Contents" you will find the article sections for EPC.App and topic sections for PCT.App, which can be further expanded for detailed contents. Under the next menu item "Rules & Protocols" of the EPC.App or "Articles & Rules" of the PCT.App, respectively, you will find further overview lists with links to the respective locations in the table of contents.
• Upon creating a PDF, it is also possible to search the full text of the respective book using the search function of the PDF viewer. The PDF further contains an additional case law index.

• By default, elements of the EPC (articles, rules, protocols) are displayed in a single-column layout (with comments in the second column), whereas other legal content (decisions, OJ articles, guidelines) is displayed in a two-column layout (with comments between paragraphs).
• Under “Edit Structure” at the top left of the navigation column, by selecting a content element and the pencil icon for "Edit", it can be chosen between single-column and two-column layout. Moreover, by selecting a group (heading) and selecting “manual break“ in the respective edit menu, switching to the left column in two-column layout can be enforced.
• However, please consider also that the content may be displayed differently on different web browsers. EPC.App / PCT.App is a javascript-based web browser application. Some web browsers do not comply with standards and ignore certain layout commands or interpret them in different ways. In case of display errors, we recommend to change the window size or zoom level, or to switch to another web browser (Google-Chrome / Microsoft-Edge sometimes behave different from Mozilla-Firefox; Apple-Safari is not tested).

• The EPC.App and PCT.App are executed via a professional cloud service in a large datacenter within the EU. The datacenter complies with certified standards on data security as well as availability (e.g. according to ISO/IEC 27018 and ISO/IEC 27001/27002:2013), and assures a server availability for at least 99.95% of the time.
• The users can generate a PDF including the whole content as offline version or local backup as often as required. It is recommended to make use of this before important events of using the book. Such backups including personal annotations would also remain for each user after license-expiry.
• The Authors do their best to resolve possible errors in the Apps as soon as possible and to keep interruptions for updates as short as possible. This has been achieved quite reliably since 2018.

• Register for EPC.App and PCT.App as early as possible
• Work through the whole EPC and PCT using the Apps (e.g. by answering exercise questions) and add not yet covered insights as own annotations
• Create complete PDFs via EPC.App / PCT.App at least one month before the exam, print them, and work on paper in the remaining time until the exam (training of visual and haptic memory)
• Put the printed versions into folders with flags on sections or articles of the EPC / PCT for faster access
• ... or use the print-on-demand service to order a customized colored paperback having an edge index (can e.g. be done once for the pre-exam and once for the main-exam)
• Incorporate any annotations which you added to the printed versions as electronic comments back into the Apps after the exam, to preserve them in future updates of the law
• Once the exam is passed and if our apps have proven helpful, consider upgrading to the Standard Edition