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To monitor a patent application, check its status in the official register or portal for each jurisdiction where it is pending, turn on the alerts that office offers, and open the underlying record every time an alert arrives. An alert tells you that something may have changed. It does not show you what changed, and it does not confirm a response deadline.
Start with the identifiers and jurisdictions
Before you set up any alert, write down the application, publication, PCT or patent number for each member of the family, and list every office where the family is proceeding. A single family can have records in several offices, and an alert in one system covers only that system. Keep U.S., European Patent Office (EPO) and PCT tracking in separate rows of your docket so that nobody assumes one alert protects the whole family.
Set up monitoring in each office
United States: Patent Center and e-Office Action
- Open USPTO Patent Center and check the application’s status. The USPTO notes that new documents may not display immediately after filing, so a missing document is not proof that nothing was filed.
- Confirm that the application is associated with a Customer Number. The optional e-Office Action program applies to qualifying applications associated with a Customer Number.
- Enroll in e-Office Action. Participants can specify up to three email addresses. The USPTO sends a notice on each day when there is new correspondence.
- When a notice arrives, sign in to Patent Center and open the communication itself (see the deadline section below). Do not act on the email alone.
Access differs by feature. Some file features in Patent Center require a registered user, and public application status is viewable without the same access as private application information. Check which view you need before you plan a workflow around it.
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- Create an account and enroll your files in EPO Register Alert. It monitors selected published EP and Euro-PCT applications and European patents with unitary effect. An account can monitor up to 5,000 files and send notices to up to five email addresses.
- Choose the events you want to monitor. Register Alert lets you customize which events trigger a notice.
- For an individual file in the European Patent Register, set an email alert. It notifies you when selected file contents change. Email alerts are available only for participating national offices in the relevant views.
- For a patent family, set the alert from the family view. It monitors only the family members that exist when you subscribe. When the family gains a member, unsubscribe and resubscribe so the new member is included.
- Use RSS where you need to watch a page, such as a search results list for a criterion. RSS in the European Patent Register is a browser-based feed. The EPO does not describe it as an alert service, so treat it as a page-change aid.
PCT communications involving the EPO: ePCT notifications
From 1 June 2026, you can select WIPO ePCT as the electronic notification method for each relevant PCT application, either at filing or later. The EPO’s announcement of 30 April 2026 covers communications where the EPO acts as Receiving Office, International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority, and it lists exclusions. The choice is made application by application, so selecting ePCT for one PCT application does not cover the others.
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MyEPO timeline panel
The MyEPO timeline panel became available on 1 October 2026 for European applications that have reached search or have a request for examination on file. It shows selected procedural events, the current stage and the next expected step. Future dates are general guidance based on average progress in the technical field. They are not dates set for your case.
Compare the monitoring options
| Option | Jurisdiction and records | What it signals | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPTO Patent Center | U.S. applications | Status, file access and application management | New documents may not appear immediately after filing; some features require a registered user. |
| USPTO e-Office Action | Qualifying applications associated with a Customer Number | Email notice when new Office correspondence is available | Optional enrollment. The email is not the underlying document and does not replace checking the due date. |
| EPO Register Alert | Selected published EP and Euro-PCT applications and European patents with unitary effect | Email alerts for selected register events | Requires an account; stated limits are 5,000 files and five email addresses. |
| EPO file email alert | EP and UP files in the European Patent Register | Changes to selected file contents | Email alerts are available only for participating national offices in the relevant views. |
| EPO family email alert | Family members in the family view | Changes in family member records | Covers only members present at setup; resubscribe when the family grows. |
| EPO RSS | EPO Register views, including search results | Changes to the monitored page or search results | Browser-based RSS; the EPO does not describe it as an alert service. |
| WIPO ePCT notification | Qualifying PCT communications where the EPO acts as Receiving Office, ISA or IPEA | Electronic notice of covered PCT communications | Must be selected for each application from 1 June 2026; stated exclusions apply. |
| MyEPO timeline | Eligible European applications that have reached search or have a request for examination on file | Selected completed milestones, current stage and next expected step | Future dates are general guidance based on average progression, not case-specific dates. |
Where alerts fall short
- Event coverage. An alert covers the event types the office or your settings include. Do not treat it as a record of every change.
- Family membership. Family alerts miss members added after you subscribed.
- Office coverage. EPO Register Alert and file alerts cover the files described above. For other national offices, check that office’s own official register. This guide does not establish the alert tools, access rules or deadlines of every national patent office.
- Publication status. Whether a file is published can affect what an alert picks up.
- Access. Public status and private application information are not the same view, so an account that can see one may not see the other.
Read the notice and confirm the deadline
An alert is a prompt. The response period is what matters, and the USPTO explains that a reply period generally begins on the mailroom or notification date shown on the communication, not on the date the email arrived. After an e-Office Action notification, log in promptly to see whether a reply is required and when it is due. Do not calculate a deadline from the time an email reached your inbox.
The USPTO’s e-Office Action FAQ also describes a reminder: if listed communications remain unviewed seven calendar days after notification and at least one requires a reply, the USPTO may send an electronic courtesy postcard. That reminder is conditional, so it should never be the only control in your docket.
For EPO files, treat the MyEPO timeline as context. Compare its next expected step with the official communication, and record the legal date from the communication itself.
Keep a dated record of a status page
A dated copy of a status page helps when a portal changes or a document is slow to appear. Do it manually like this:
- Open the status or file view for the application in the official portal. Sign in first if the page requires it.
- Capture the page with your operating system’s screenshot tool. Alternatively, press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on macOS), choose Save as PDF, and save the page.
- Name the file with the application number and the capture date, for example
application-number_2026-10-09.png. - File it next to the official communication. A capture shows what the page displayed at that moment. It does not replace the office record or the notice.
Or skip the browser setup: one GET request to the ScreenshotNeo API returns the page as an image. The request format and every option are in the ScreenshotNeo docs. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key and set url to the status page you want to capture. The examples below capture stripe.com, as given.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpimport requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);For a status page that needs a signed-in session, the docs cover custom headers, cookies and Authorization, and options to wait for a selector, a delay or network idle before the capture. Keep your key and any session values in a server-side environment variable, not in shared scripts.
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- Bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits are not billed. Each response says which it was in the X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers.
- An MCP server lets AI agents such as Claude or Cursor take screenshots through the take_screenshot, get_page_info and capture_pdf tools.
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Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A new filing does not appear in Patent Center | The USPTO says new documents may not display immediately after filing | Recheck later. Public application information is also searchable through the USPTO Open Data Portal. |
| No e-Office Action email | Not enrolled, or the application is not associated with a Customer Number | Check enrollment and the Customer Number association in Patent Center, then check the file directly. |
| Register Alert will not take a new file | The account limit of 5,000 files has been reached, or the file is outside the covered set | Remove files you no longer need. Confirm the file is a selected published EP or Euro-PCT application or a European patent with unitary effect. |
| A new family member produced no alert | The family alert covers only members present when you subscribed | Unsubscribe and resubscribe to the family alert. |
| No email for a national office file | Email alerts apply only to participating national offices in the relevant views | Check that office’s official register directly. |
| No ePCT notice for a PCT communication | ePCT was not selected for that application, or the communication falls under a stated exclusion or outside the covered EPO roles | Select ePCT for each application and check the exclusions in the EPO’s 30 April 2026 announcement. |
| A MyEPO timeline date passed with no event | The date is general guidance based on average progress | Rely on the official communication for any deadline. |
| Screenshot API response is not an image, or was not billed | Bot check, blank page, timeout or failed load | Read the X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. Non-clean responses are not billed. |
| Screenshot shows a sign-in screen | The session was not passed with the request | Add the required cookies or Authorization header as described in the docs. |
Work with other jurisdictions
If your family has a national filing outside the United States and the EPO, use that office’s official register and its own alert tools. Do not assume that a U.S. or EPO alert, or an ePCT selection, reports events there.
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