The Bureau of Patents changed the calculation of the deadline for payment of annuities for divisional applications. There is now only one deadline to pay the annual fees for a divisional application and the annual fees for the parent application. This deadline is four (4) years from the international publication date of the parent application (for PCT divisional applications), and four (4) years from the publication date of the parent application (for direct route applications). This change has simplified the process of monitoring the annual fees deadline dates because there will only be one deadline for annual fees for both the parent and the divisional applications.