Facts
On 20 September 1978, Edwin Schoch filed a patent application No. 9805/78 with the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, concerning the invention of a safety hook for a windsurfing harness. During the examination procedure, he filed a divisional application No. 6260/80 on 19 August 1980, for which he claimed the filing date of the main application of 20 September 1978. The Office considered that the subject matter of the divisional application went beyond the content of the main application and should therefore be rejected in accordance with Art. 57 para. 1 let. c PatA. As Schoch did not accept this position, the Office set the filing date of the divisional application to 19 August 1980 by "interlocutory decision" of 29 April 1981.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court considers that the Office's decision setting the filing date of the divisional application is not an interlocutory decision, but a final decision on a substantive issue that can be challenged without restriction. According to case law, it is from the perspective of an average skilled person that it must be judged whether the subject matter of a divisional application remains within the framework of the initial documents or goes beyond the…