European Patent Office Divisional Fees

By Christine Anglesea on Tuesday 4th March 2014

From 1st April, it will be possible to a divisional application from any pending European application. The EPO has announced a new fee structure in which the application fee payable for a divisional application depends on whether the parent application is itself a divisional application. The fees payable depend on the generation of the divisional application and not the number of divisional applications filed within the family. Therefore, if an applicant were to file five divisional applications directly from one parent application, then so long as the parent application is not a divisional application, each of these would be treated as a first generation divisional application. A first generation divisional application does not incur any extra fee. However, if an applicant were to file a divisional application from a divisional application, then the applicant would have to pay an extra fee because this would be treated as a second generation divisional application. The amount of the additional fee for second and subsequent generations is as follows: - for a divisional application of the second generation: €210 - for a divisional application of the third generation: €420 - for a divisional application of the fourth generation: €630 - for a divisional application of the fifth and any subsequent generation: €840 Further details regarding these fees can be found at the EPO website here.

Swindell & Pearson Ltd is a firm of European patent and trade mark attorneys based in the UK with offices in the Midlands, Yorkshire and London. If you have any questions concerning the filing of divisional patent applications at the EPO, please get in touch with your usual contact at Swindell & Pearson Ltd or Christine Anglesea at [email protected]. Christine is based in our head office in Derby.

Swindell & Pearson has been helping businesses and individuals protect and defend their ideas, innovations and brands for over 130 years. With its head office in Derby, the firm also has offices in Stoke, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Sheffield and Burton. To find out how Swindell & Pearson can help you with any intellectual property requirements please get in touch via [email protected] or by telephone on 01332 367 051