5.6 Doubts about the state of the art 

It is the examining division, not the search division, that ultimately decides on novelty (see B‑III, 1.1), and so the search division does not disregard highly relevant documents because it has doubts about, for instance, when exactly they were published or made publicly available (e.g. standards or related preparatory documents, see G‑IV, 7.6) or, where they refer to an oral disclosure, exhibition, etc., what exactly was said or displayed. It tries to remove any such doubts but always cites the documents in the search report anyway, while continuing its search as though they had not been found. It can also cite additional documents providing evidence on the matters in doubt (see B‑X, 9.2.8). It will explain any such matters in detail in the search opinion.

Any date of publication indicated in a document is accepted as correct unless there is good reason to challenge it, e.g. where the search division can show it was published earlier or where the applicant can show in examination proceedings that it was published later. If the indicated date of publication is not precise enough (e.g. because only a month or year is given) to establish whether it was published before the relevant date for the search, the search division will try to determine the exact date or at least narrow it down with enough precision to establish this. A date of receipt at the EPO stamped on the document or a reference in another document, which must then be cited (see B‑X, 9.2.8), can help with this. Whether a document was publicly available may be investigated when the search opinion is drawn up and during substantive examination (see C‑IV, 1). Where, despite the search division's attempts, the date is still not precise enough for it to know whether or not the document was published before or after the priority or filing date, it will cite it as though it had been published on the earliest possible date. For instance, if only the month and year of publication are known, the search division will cite it as having been published on the first day of that month.