6.1.11.10 Categorising the Citations

Also in this Chapter:

• 6.1.11.1 Overview - Novelty / Inventive Step

• 6.1.11.2 Inventive Step

• 6.1.11.3 Searching Product by Process Claims

• 6.1.11.4 Dates Searched

• 6.1.11.5 Conducting the Search

• 6.1.11.6 Useful Techniques (‘piggy back/forward’ searching)

• 6.1.11.7 Obtaining Full Copies

• 6.1.11.8 Considering and Culling the Documents

• 6.1.11.9 Ending the Search​​​​​​​

• 6.1.11.11 Grouping the Claims

Key Legislation:​​​​​​​

PCT ISPE Guidelines:

• Paragraph 1.03 Purpose and Status of These Guidelines

• Paragraph 15.09 The Examiner

Related Chapters:

• 6.1.12.5.2 Citation Category

On this page

• Overview

• General process for categorising citations

  • Level of analysis based on category relevance

Overview

Search examiners should, whenever practical, perform some level of culling or sorting of full copy documents prior to an in-depth categorising step. This is so that the documents of highest perceived relevance are considered for categorising first.

General process for categorising citations

Generally, a cull or sort would involve a skim of the documents taking only a few minutes for each document. This would identify a coarse rank of relevance of the documents (whether possible X, Y or other category), and eliminate any document whose disclosure is fully embraced by another document. Any relevant foreign language document should be considered in the categorising step of the process and not culled from further consideration just because it is not in English.

The publication level (A, A1, A2, B, C and the like) should be indicated alongside its number. For more information on publication levels see the ‘Kind Codes’ section in 6.1.12.5.3 Citation of Prior Art Documents.

Level of analysis based on category relevance

Once a document is determined to be of solely A category relevance, no further analysis should be undertaken.

In-depth analysis is only undertaken on documents determined to be of particular relevance for the purpose of assessing novelty and inventive step in accordance with the objective of the international search. The objective of the international search is to discover relevant prior art for the purpose of assessing novelty and inventive step. Decisions on novelty and inventive step are the province of the designated Offices. Thus, it is essential that the search identify relevant items of prior art for novelty and inventive step purposes. See PCT/GL/ISPE/12 at paragraph 1.03 and 15.09.

See also 6.1.12.5.2 Citation Category.