2.3 Carrying out the search; types of documents 

The search division then carries out the search, focusing on documents relevant for novelty and inventive step.

It also notes any documents that may be important for other reasons, such as:

(i)conflicting documents (see B‑VI, 4), i.e.:

(a)published European patent applications under Art. 54(3) (see G‑IV, 5.1 and G-IV, 5.1.1)

(b)published international applications under Art. 54(3) and Art. 153(3) and Art. 153(5) (see G‑IV, 5.2)

(c)published national applications of EPC contracting states under Art. 139(2) (see G‑IV, 6 and H‑III, 4.4)

(d)any document published during the priority interval of the application which may become relevant under Art. 54(2) if the priority date turns out to be invalid.

If the applications listed above were published within the searched application's priority interval, they will be cited in the search report as "P" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.4); if they were published on or after the European or international filing date, they will be cited as "E" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.6).

(ii)documents that cast doubt on the validity of any priority claimed (see B‑VI, 3 and F‑VI, 1.4.1), which are cited in the search report as "L" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.8(a)).

(iii)documents that help to understand the claimed invention better or to understand it correctly, which are cited in the search report as "T" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.5).

(iv)documents illustrating the technological background, which are cited in the search report as "A" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.2).

(v)European patent applications that have the same filing or priority date as the searched application, were filed by the same applicant and relate to the same invention and that are therefore relevant to the issue of double patenting (see G‑IV, 5.4), which are cited in the search report as "L" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.8 (c)).

(vi)documents indicating or establishing the publication date of a document found on the internet (see G‑IV, 7.5), which are cited in the search report as "L" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.8 (b)).

(vii)documents found on the internet which do not have any publication date but which the search division nonetheless wants to cite to inform the applicant or third parties (see G‑IV, 7.5.4), which are also cited in the search report as "L" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.8).

However, the search division does not spend a lot of time searching for these documents or considering any related matters unless it has a special reason for doing so in a particular case (see B‑VI, 5.3 and B‑XI, 4).