The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation decided in October 2013 to amend Rules 36, 38 and 135 of the Implementing Regulations, which define the time limits for filing divisional applications in Europe.
In Board of Appeal decision J 18/09, it was held that a divisional application cannot be validly filed based on a PCT application before entry into European regional phase,[REF] as later confirmed in Enlarged Board of Appeal decision G1/09 [REF].