Where a document cited in the European search report represents state of the art not prejudicial to the novelty or inventive step of the claimed invention, it is indicated by the letter "A" (see, however, B‑III, 1.1).

All documents cited in the search report are identified by placing a particular letter in the first column of the citation sheets. Where needed, combinations of different categories are possible. The following letters are used.

9.2.1 Particularly relevant documents

9.2.2 Documents defining the state of the art and not prejudicing novelty or inventive step

Frequently, members of the same patent family are published in a number of different languages. Consequently, the search division has a choice regarding the language of the document which is cited in the search report. If the relevant technical content does not differ between the various family members and they are all published before the earliest priority date of the application, then all of the members of the family are of equal relevance to the application.

All documents cited in the search report must be identified unambiguously by indicating the necessary bibliographic elements. All citations in the search report normally comply with WIPO Standard ST.14 (Recommendation for the inclusion of references cited in patent documents), WIPO Standard ST.3 (Two-letter codes) and ST.16 (Standard code for identification of different kinds of patent documents).

9.1 Identification of documents in the search report

9.2 Categories of documents (X, Y, P, A, D, etc.)

9.3 Relationship between documents and claims

9.4 Identification of relevant passages in prior-art documents