1. General remarks 

An examining division will normally consist of three technical examiners. However, within the examining division responsible for the application, one member (the first examiner member) will, as a general rule, be entrusted to carry out all substantive examination work up to the point of a decision to grant a patent, issue a summons to oral proceedings or refuse the application. While acting on behalf of the examining division in all communications with the applicant up to that point, this examiner may confer informally with the other members of the division at any time on specific points of doubt or difficulty. The term "examiner" as used in this part of the Guidelines is normally understood to mean the "first" examiner member.

As stated above, the examiner first member may seek the advice of other members of the examining division at any stage in the examination. However, there will come a point when it becomes appropriate for them to refer the case formally to the other members of the examining division. This will be when they consider the case to be in order to proceed to grant or, alternatively, where there seems no possibility of an amendment to overcome their objections or where the applicant has not overcome these objections, and when they consider the case to be in order to proceed to refusal. There are also other circumstances in which reference to the examining division is appropriate, e.g. oral proceedings may be suggested by the examiner or requested by the applicant because an impasse has been reached. In considering whether to refer the application to the division, the examiner should be guided by the principle stated in C‑IV, 3.

Primary examiners The first member should also bear in mind that when they issue a communication they do so in the name of the division, and the applicant is entitled to assume that if the examiner had doubts as to the views of the rest of the division, they would have discussed the matter with them beforehand.

Although the examining division assumes ultimate responsibility for an application as soon as that application passes to it under Rule 10, formal matters are normally dealt with by a formalities officer (see the decision of the President of the EPO dated 12 December 2013, OJ EPO 2014, A6; OJ EPO 2015, A104). Examiners should not spend time checking the work of the Receiving Section or the formalities officer. However, they should refer an application to the formalities officer for further consideration if they believe the formalities report to be incorrect or incomplete.

If required by specific circumstances (e.g. sickness), an application may be reallocated to another examiner/examining division. In such cases, the decision to reallocate will be taken by the line manager. The director is responsible for deciding whether the dossier is to be fully reallocated to a new examining division or whether a single member of the division is to be replaced.