1.2.2 Relationship between the PCT‑EPO Guidelines and the ISPE Guidelines

The ISPE Guidelines set out in detail the procedures and criteria to be followed by all International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authorities. However, to accommodate divergent practice amongst different authorities, they allow for some degree of freedom as to which procedures/criteria are used, with the different possible options either defined in a specific paragraph of the particular chapter concerned or listed in an appendix to that chapter. Generally, the EPO will use the same criteria when searching and examining an international application as would have been used in the European procedure. This means that where the ISPE Guidelines are either silent or non-exhaustive or give no guidance on a particular topic, then the equivalent provisions of the EPC Guidelines are applied mutatis mutandis to PCT search and preliminary examination. A list of the criteria chosen by the EPO where the ISPE Guidelines leave it to authorities to choose between alternative options is provided in section 3.2 below.