An applicant may “divide” a patent application by filing one or more divisional applications. It may be that when your initial patent application was drafted it covered more than one invention; perhaps because you were not sure which aspect of your invention you wished to pursue. This is likely to lead to an objection by an Examiner that your application lacks unity and we will be invited to limit the initial or “parent” application to a single invention. Any further inventions can then be protected by filing one or more divisional patent applications. The new divisional application is prosecuted as a separate, independent patent application. We will advise on the best way to proceed if it is considered necessary to file divisional patent applications and make you fully aware of the costs involved.

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The deadline for filing a divisional application differs between countries, however, they must be filed whilst the parent application is still pending.