6.3 Payment of additional search fees under protest 

In reply to Form 206, applicants may pay some or all of the additional fees under protest. If they do so, then this triggers the protest procedure for determining whether the request for payment of the additional fees was justified (see also GL/PCT‑EPO B‑VII, 7).

If the applicant has paid additional search fees under protest and the Review Panel decided that the protest was fully or partly justified, the examiner will follow the decision of the Review Panel and will proceed to establish the ISR and WO‑ISA for the inventions for which search fees have been paid. In the ISR the examiner will adapt the number of inventions and their definitions as well as the non-unity reasoning to be consistent with the decision of the review panel. In the WO‑ISA, Section IV and the reasoning will be adapted to the decision of the Review Panel and Section III will be modified to the actual payment of fees. Under Section V an opinion as to novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability for all searched inventions will be given.

In the special situation where the protest was fully justified and where, as a consequence, the application is considered unitary, the examiner will follow the decision of the Review Panel and send a final ISR with no indication of non-unity. In Section IV of the WO‑ISA the examiner will indicate that the requirement of unity of invention is complied with and that the search report has been established in respect of all parts of the application; no reasons need to be given on the separate sheet. Under Section V, an opinion as to novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability for all claims will be given.

If the applicant has paid additional search fees under protest and the Review Panel decided that the protest was not justified, the examiner will follow the decision of the Review Panel and proceed to establish the ISR and WO‑ISA for the inventions for which search fees have been paid. In the ISR and the WO‑ISA (Section IV) the examiner will indicate that the requirement of unity is not complied with. Section III will be modified to the actual payment of fees, and under Section V an opinion as to novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability for all searched inventions will be given.

The final ISR and WO‑ISA will be sent out together with the decision on protest (Form PCT/ISA/212) in order to ensure that both are consistent.

See also below (GL/PCT‑EPO B‑VII, 7), for the protest procedure and the work of the Review Panel.