1.2 Formal deficiencies 

If the search division notices any formal shortcomings which have been overlooked by the Receiving Section, it issues an internal communication bringing them to the attention of the Receiving Section (or of the examining division, where it has requested an additional search), which then takes appropriate action. However, the search division does not redo the Receiving Section's work and does not make any time-consuming enquiries into the formalities. Deficiencies it might notice in an application include:

(i)physical deficiencies (see A‑III, 3.2), including:

(a)no electronic sequence listing (Rule 30(1), OJ EPO 2011, 372, OJ EPO 2013, 542)

(b)incorrect sequence and/or positioning of page numbering and/or failure to use Arabic numerals to number pages (Art. 2(5) of the decision of the President of the EPO dated 25 November 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A113)

(c)drawings in the description and/or claims (Art. 2(8) of the decision of the President of the EPO dated 25 November 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A113)

(d)erasures and/or alterations in the application documents that cast doubt on the authenticity of their content and/or are not conducive to good reproduction (Art. 2(11) of the decision of the President of the EPO dated 25 November 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A113).

(ii)prohibited matter, i.e. content which: 

(a)is contrary to "ordre public" (see A‑III, 8.1, F‑II, 7.2 and G‑II, 4.1, G-II, 4.1.1 and G-II, 4.1.2) or

(b)amounts to a disparaging statement (see A‑III, 8.2) (as opposed to permissible "fair comment" – see F‑II, 7.3).

(iii)non-compliance with the provisions on depositing biological material (see A‑IV, 4), in particular any failure to properly identify the depositary institution and the accession number it assigned to the biological material (Rule 31(1)(c); see G 2/93 and A‑IV, 4.2).

(iv)a failure to correctly identify the application as a divisional application within the meaning of Art. 76(1) (Rule 41(2)(e); see A‑IV, 1.3.2).

(v)text in two different EPO official languages (Art. 14).