UKIPO drills down on divisional deadlines in update to patent manual
By Melissa Ritti ( October 2, 2026, 14:42 GMT | Insight) -- UK patent applicants will be treated as having filed a divisional on time if the first substantive examination report on the parent application has not been issued. Thursday’s guidance by the UK Intellectual Property Office resolves lingering uncertainty over provisional compliance deadlines, in addition to clarifying the treatment of applications with unresolved formal deficiencies.The UK Intellectual Property Office this week clarified that a divisional patent application filed before the first substantive examination report on an earlier parent application is issued should always be treated as timely....
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