3.3.2 Admissibility of auxiliary requests
3.3.2.2 Timeliness and structure of auxiliary requests
If auxiliary requests are filed after the final date set in accordance with Rule 116(2), they are usually treated as late-filed unless a summons to oral proceedings was issued as the first action.
For late-filed requests, in addition to the criteria set out in H‑III, 3.3.2.1, the subject-matter of the new claims must not diverge considerably from the claims already filed. The requests normally need to represent a convergent development, i.e. the subject-matter of the auxiliary requests constitutes a sequential limitation in the direction of an intended invention and does not make use of different characteristics in order to branch out in different directions (T 1273/04). In particular, the applicant cannot shift to the examining division the responsibility for defining the subject-matter of the application by filing a large number of unstructured requests or requests involving different variants: this leads to the requests not being admitted.