4.1 Potentially conflicting European and international applications 

Where the search is carried out less than 18 months after the application's European or international filing date (i.e. its filing date under Art. 80 and not its claimed priority date or dates), it will generally not have been possible to search for all potentially conflicting European and international applications, and so the examining division will have to complete this search at the examination stage (see C‑IV, 7.1). However, if the search division does find any potentially conflicting published documents, it will cite them in the search report.

Patent documents, regardless of their state or region of origin, which have a filing date or valid priority date before the filing date of the searched application (not its priority date) but were published on or after that filing date and which contain novelty-destroying subject-matter for at least one independent claim of the application are referred to as "E" documents (see B‑X, 9.2.6).

"E" documents cited in a European search report can be other European or international (WO) patent applications with an earlier priority date (Art. 54(3)) which are relevant because they anticipate the novelty of the subject-matter claimed in the searched application.

An "E" document is novelty-destroying prior art under Art. 54(3) no matter where it discloses the subject-matter in question, i.e. whether it is in the claims, description or drawings.