Further to our earlier news items concerning the removal of the two-year time limit for filing divisional applications, the EPO has now confirmed the fee structure that it will be imposing on the filing of divisional applications.
Rule Change
The EPO announced that they would be removing the two-year time limit for filing divisional applications. This rule change means that as of 1st April 2014 the only requirement for the filing of a divisional application will be that the parent application is still pending.
However, in an apparent attempt to discourage the filing of on-going series of divisional applications, the EPO announced that a further fee, additional to the basic filing fee, will be payable in an increasing amount for second generation divisional applications onwards.
Fee Structure
Comment
Since the additional fee increases substantially between each generation of divisional application, there is an incentive for filing multiple first generation divisional applications rather than on-going generations of divisional applications. Divisional applications will also continue to attract back-dated renewal fee payments at the time of filing and which also serve to increase the initial filing costs for later filed divisionals.
WP Thompson will be happy to advise on strategies for the filing of divisional applications under the new regime, and for keeping an application pending up to the 1 April 2014 so that advantage can be taken of the new regime.
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