1.2.1 Date of filing 

A European divisional application may be filed in respect of subject-matter not extending beyond the content of the parent application as filed. Provided this requirement is met, the divisional application is deemed filed on the parent application's filing date and enjoys that application's priority (see A‑IV, 1.2.2).

A divisional application filed in due form, i.e. meeting the requirements of Art. 80 and Rule 40(1) (see A‑II, 4.1 et seq.), is accorded the same filing date as the parent application or that of the root application in the case of a sequence of divisional applications. Whether the divisional application's subject-matter is confined to that of the parent application is not decided until the examination procedure (see C‑IX, 1.4 et seq.). The term of a patent granted for a European divisional application is 20 years from its filing date, i.e. the filing date of the root application.

Since Rule 40(1) does not require a European patent application to contain any claims on its filing date, the same applies to a European divisional application. The applicant can file the claims after filing the divisional application according to the procedures detailed in A‑III, 15. This may be done after the parent application is no longer pending, provided that the requirements of Rule 40(1) were satisfied with regard to the divisional application when the parent application was still pending. If the parent application's claims are included in the divisional application's description, they must be clearly identified as part of the description (see F‑IV, 4.4).