1.2 Invitation to pay further search fees 

The search division will inform the applicant of the lack of unity of invention in a communication accompanying the partial search report and will indicate that a further search fee must be paid for each invention other than the one first mentioned in the claims, if the search is to cover these inventions as well. A provisional opinion on the patentability of the invention or unitary group of inventions first mentioned in the claims (see F‑V, 3.4) and the reasons for non-unity findings will be provided to the applicant. The provisional opinion will be sent together with the invitation to pay further search fees. The provisional opinion will be for information only. A reply addressing the points raised in the provisional opinion is not required and will not be taken into account when the extended European search report is issued (see the notice from the EPO dated 3 March 2017, OJ EPO 2017, A20).