9.2.6 Potentially conflicting patent documents 

Any patent document which has a filing or priority date before the searched application's filing date (not its priority date – see B‑VI, 3 and B‑XI, 4) but was published on or after that date and whose content could potentially constitute prior art relevant to novelty (Art. 54(1)) is labelled with the letter "E". This label is also assigned where the patent document and the searched application have the same filing date (see G‑IV, 5.4). However, patent documents claiming the same priority as the searched application do not fall in this category and are not cited.