Chapter II – European search report
Rule 44
Content of the European search report
A revised version of the European Patent Convention entered into force on 13 December 2007. The provisions of the revised Convention apply unless the transitional provisions provide for the applicability of the EPC 1973. |
(1) 69 The European search report shall mention those documents, available to the European Patent Office at the time of drawing up the report, which may be taken into consideration in deciding whether the invention to which the European patent application relates is new and involves an inventive step.
(2) Each citation shall be referred to the claims to which it relates. If necessary, the relevant parts of the documents cited shall be identified (for example, by indicating the page, column and lines or the diagrams).
(3) The European search report shall distinguish between cited documents published before the date of priority claimed, between such date of priority and the date of filing, and on or after the date of filing.
(4) Any document which refers to an oral disclosure, a use or any other means of disclosure which took place prior to the date of filing of the European patent application shall be mentioned in the European search report, together with an indication of the date of publication, if any, of the document and the date of the non-written disclosure.
(5) 70 The European search report shall be drawn up in the language of the proceedings.
(6) The European search report shall contain the classification of the subject-matter of the European patent application in accordance with the international classification.
69See information from the EPO concerning the annex to the European search report (OJ EPO 1982, 448 ff; 1984, 381; 1999, 90).
70Last amended by decision of the Administrative Council of 07.12.1990 which entered into force on 01.06.1991 (OJ EPO 1991, 4 ff).