LAST CALL FOR DIVISIONALS!
September 2010
We remind that, under the transitional provisions to the amended Rule 36 EPC, any more divisional applications that are required must be filed by the end of Friday 1 October 2010 European time in all European patent families, where at least one member is still pending, that were first examined by the EPO Examining Division on or before 1 October 2008.
The only exception to this rule is where the divisional application is filed solely to resolve a non-unity objection first raised after 1 October 2008. In that case, the divisional application must be filed within 2 years after the first raising of the non-unity objection, provided that the named parent application is the one in which the non-unity objection was first raised.
After 1 October 2010, the deadline for filing divisional applications will be in all cases 2 years after the first Examination Report (voluntary division) or – when resolving a non-unity objection - 2 years after the Examination Report that first raised the objection in the named parent application (mandatory division).
The normal cases where a divisional application should be considered are (i) if a non-unity objection has been raised, so that restriction to one invention is necessary or likely; (ii) if the claims of an application have been restricted for other reasons already; and (iii) if an application is facing objections that are still not resolved but may not be resolvable without further restriction to the claims. In all these cases, the only way to secure protection for the deleted coverage is via a divisional application.
European divisional applications are expensive because the back-annuities must be paid shortly after filing, to conform the maintenance years of the divisional and parent applications. However, the official fees are not payable immediately and the claims do not need to be filed at the start.
Therefore, so long as you know the maximum number of divisional applications that will be required, we can file this number of applications by 1 October without fees and without claims, to preserve the options while the final decisions are taken.
Please contact us urgently if further information is required.
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