According to Rule 42 (1) of the
Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law of China, for a patent
application containing two or more inventions, utility models or
designs, the applicant may, before the expiration of the two-month
period from the date of receipt of the notification to grant the
patent right, submit a divisional application; however, for a
patent application that has been rejected, withdrawn or is deemed
to have been withdrawn, no divisional application may be filed.
From the provisions stated above, it
seems that the reasons for filing a divisional application seem
very simple. However, in practice, there is a great diversity of
purposes for filing a divisional application. Generally
speaking, it may be classified into two types: passively
filed-divisional application and actively filed-divisional
application.
