11.1 General remarks

11.2 Electronic version of document cited

11.3 Patent family members; the "&" sign

11.4 Reviews or books

11.5 Summaries, extracts or abstracts

In the case of long documents, the search division indicates those parts (such as a claim, example, figure, table or text passage on a particular page) of a cited document which contain the technical subject-matter closest to (or coinciding with) the searched invention.

Where in the search report any document is cited for reasons (in particular as evidence – see B‑VI, 5.6) other than those referred to in the foregoing paragraphs, for example:[Art. 117(1)(c); ]

Any patent document bearing a filing or priority date earlier than the filing date of the application searched (not the priority date – see B‑VI, 3, and B‑XI, 4) but published on or after that date and the content of which would constitute prior art relevant to novelty (Art. 54(1)) is indicated by the letter "E".

Documents published on dates falling between the date of filing of the application being examined and the date of priority claimed, or the earliest priority if there is more than one (see B‑VI, 5.2, and B‑XI, 4), are denoted by the letter "P". The letter "P" is also given to a document published on the very day of the earliest date of priority of the patent application under consideration.