As a result of an amendment to the Agreement between the EPO and WIPO under the PCT, any national or resident of the United States of America filing an international application on or after 1 January 2015 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or the IB as receiving Office will be able to select the EPO as ISA irrespective of the technical field in which the application is classified. It should, however, be noted that the Notice from the EPO dated 1 October 2007 concerning business methods remains applicable. Therefore, the EPO as ISA will, in all cases where the subject-matter of the international application involves technical means, consider the application and to the extent possible provide a search report for those parts of it which are more than mere business methods.[OJ EPO 2014, A117; OJ EPO 2017, A115; OJ EPO 2018, A24; GL/ISPE 9.07; ]

Section B‑VIII, 2.2.1, in the Guidelines for Examination in the EPO applies mutatis mutandis.