(Sic!!) Losing property rights through divisional applications : intellectual property

When filing and prosecuting PCT national phase patent applications for foreign clients in South Africa, patent attorneys are often, at a later stage, instructed to file one or more so-called divisional applications in respect of part of the matter disclosed in the first-mentioned application (for example, in order to pursue claims of a different scope). This article aims to emphasise that, due to the unique nature of these applications, care should be taken when filing them in order to ensure they retain the same priority rights as the parent application.