3. Analysis of the application and content of the search opinion
Overview
3. Analysis of the application and content of the search opinion
If the search division takes the view that the application and/or the invention do not meet the EPC requirements, then it will raise objections in the search opinion.
As a general rule, the search opinion covers all objections to the application (but see B‑XI, 3.4). These objections can relate to substantive matters (e.g. the subject-matter is not patentable) or to procedural matters (e.g. one or more of the requirements in Rules 41 to 43, and Rule 48 to 50 are not met; see Arts. 1 and 2 of the decision of the President of the EPO dated 25 November 2022, OJ EPO 2022, A113), or even to both.
Where claims relating to a method of treatment of the human or animal body or methods of diagnosis practised on the human or animal body have been searched because it can already be envisaged at this stage that they will be reworded in an allowable format (see B‑VIII, 2), the search opinion will nonetheless object to these claims as relating to subject-matter that is not patentable.