Guidelines for Examination

If, by a final decision, it is adjudged that a third party is entitled to the grant of a European patent in respect of only part of the matter disclosed in the European patent application, then the foregoing considerations apply only to that part. In such a case, option (i) mentioned in C-IX, 2.1(i) is not open to the third party and, regarding option C-IX, 2.1(ii), the new application must be confined to that part of the original subject-matter to which he has become entitled. Similarly, the original application must, for the designated States concerned, be confined to the subject-matter to which the original applicant remains entitled. The new application and the amended original application will stand in a relationship to each other similar to that pertaining between two divisional applications, and they will each stand in a relationship to the original application similar to that in which divisional applications stand in relation to the application from which they are divided. The guidance set out in C-IX, 1.4, C-IX, 1.5 and C-IX, 1.6 is therefore applicable to this situation.