1.2.1 General 

The further search fees must be paid within two months (Rule 64(1)). Applicants using the automatic debiting procedure must inform the EPO within this period if they do not want some or even any of the other inventions to be searched, because otherwise further search fees for all of them will be debited automatically on the last day.

(a)If the applicant does not pay any further search fees in time, there will be no further search and the partial search report will become the final search report, which is accompanied by the search opinion. Nevertheless, the final decision on unity of invention is taken by the examining division or – in the event of an appeal – ultimately by the board of appeal (B‑VII, 1.4 and C‑III, 3.2.1).

(b)If the applicant pays further search fees for any of the remaining inventions or groups of inventions in time, a further search will be carried out on those inventions. The final search report will then be drawn up for all inventions for which search fees have been paid, i.e. the first one and the ones included in the further search. If the application does not meet the EPC requirements as regards any of the inventions for which further search fees have been paid, this will be mentioned in the search opinion. For example: invention 1 was searched and the applicant paid a further search fee for invention 3. The subject-matter of invention 3 was found to lack novelty. The search opinion will then cover invention 1 and object to a lack of novelty for the subject-matter of invention 3.