11.1 General remarks 

The search report is sent to the applicant and transmitted to the examining division. Copies of all the cited documents are made available to the applicant as described below Copies of all the cited documents are made available to the applicant (see also B‑IV, 3.3), except for those documents appearing in the search report after the "&" symbol which the search division has not earmarked for this (see B‑X, 11.3). MyEPO Portfolio users receive all cited documents electronically in their Mailbox. Applicants not having opted for electronic notification via Mailbox receive paper copies of non-patent literature and translations of cited patent literature by post. Digital copies of cited patent literature documents are accessible in Espacenet (worldwide.espacenet.com/).

These cited documents are then used to assess the patentability of the claimed invention (see B‑XI, 3) both in the search opinion (if applicable ‒ see B‑XI, 7) and in the examination proceedings.