It may be adjudged by decision of a court or competent authority (hereinafter "court") that a person referred to in Art. 61(1), other than the registered applicant, is entitled to the grant of a European patent.

Divisional applications are searched, published and examined in the same way as other European patent applications.

The search fee is refunded if the conditions of Art. 9(2) of the Rules relating to Fees are met (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 17 November 2017, OJ EPO 2017, A94, for divisional applications for which the search is completed on or after 1 December 2017).

The divisional application is published in accordan

The provisions of A‑VIII, 1.5 and A-VIII, 1.6, apply with regard to authorisations in respect of the divisional application. If, according to these provisions, the representative has to file an authorisation, they may act on the basis of an individual authorisation filed in respect of the parent application only if it expressly empowers them to file divisional applications.

For the divisional application, as for any other European patent application, renewal fees are payable to the EPO. They are due in respect of the third year and each subsequent year, calculated from the date of filing of the earlier (parent) application, being that of the root application in case of a sequence of divisional applications.

An additional fee is payable as part of the filing fee for divisional applications of second or subsequent generations filed on or after 1 April 2014 (see the Notice from the EPO dated 8 January 2014, OJ EPO 2014, A22). The amount of the fee varies depending on the generation to which the divisional application filed belongs (see A‑IV, 1.1.2). First-generation divisional applications are not subject to the additional fee.