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NO SEARCH REQUIRED IF CLAIMS· ARE
UNCLEAR
If the International Searching Authority considers
that the description, the claims, or the drawings fail to
comply with the prescribed requirements to such an
extent that a meaningful search could not be carried
out, it may declare that it will not establish a search
report (PCT Article 17(2)(a)(ii». Such declaration
may also be made in respect of some of the claims
only. The lack of the international search report will
not, in itself, have any influence on the validity of the
international application and the latter's processing
will continue, including its communication to the designated
Offices. Where only some of the claims are
found to be unsearchable, the International Searching
Authority will not search them, but will search the rest
of the international application. Any unsearched
claims will be indicated in the international search
report.
1844 The International Search Report
retArticle 18.
The International Search Report
(1) The international search report shall be established
within the prescribed time limit andin the prescribed form.
(2) The international search report shall, as soon as it has
been established, be transmitted by the International Searching
Authority to the applicant andthe International Bureau,
(3) Theinternational search report orthedeclaration referred
to in Article 17(2)(a) shall he translated as provided in the Regulations.
The translations shallbe prepared by orunder theresponsibility
of the International Bureau.
The results of the international search will be
recorded in the international search report (Form
PCTIISAl21O), which is transmitted with Form PCTI
ISAl220 to the applicant and with Form PCTIISAl2l9
to the International Bureau. The search report will be
published by the International Bureau and will serve
as a basis for examination of the international application
by the designated Offices and the International
Preliminary Examination Authority.
The time limit for establishing the international
search report or the declaration under Article 17(2)(a)
that no search report will be established is 3 months
from receipt of the search copy by the searching
authority or 9 months from the priority date, whichever
time limit expires later. To ensure timeliness,
Office policy is to set a shorter period for the search
PATENT COOPERATION TREATY 1844
by the examiner so that any corrections to the report
can be made timely and also to allow for review and
mailing to the International Bureau; The Office strives
to get all search reports to the International Bureau by
16 months from the priority date or, where there is no
priority date, 9 months from the international filing
date. See PCT Rule 42.1.
The search report should not contain any expressions
of opinion, reasoning, argument or explanation
as to any cited prior art. Any such comments would be
inappropriate and should be used only if preliminary
examination is or becomes a part of the international
proceeding, The search report is only for the purpose
of identifying prior art and not for commenting thereupon.
The printed international search report form (Form
PCTIISAl210) to be transmitted to the applicant and
to the International Bureau contains two main sheets
("first sheet" and "second sheet") to be used for all
searches. These two main sheets are intended for
recording the important features of the search such as
the fields searched and for citing documents revealed
by the search. The printed international search report
form also contains four optional continuation sheets
for use where necessary. There are two continuation
sheets for each of the "first sheet" and the "second
sheet": "continuation of first sheet (1)" and "continuation
of first sheet (2)", and "continuation of second
sheet" and "patent family annex", respectively. The
patent family annex sheet is not currently used by the
United States International Searching Authority since
patent family information is not readily available to
the examiner. The "continuation of first sheet (1)" is
to be used only where an indication is made on the
first sheet that claims were found unsearchable (item
1) and/or unity of invention is lacking (item 2). The
relevant indications must then be made on that continuation
sheet. The "continuation of first sheet (2)" is to
contain the text of the abstract where an abstract or an
amended abstract has been established by the International
Searching Authority (item 5) and an indication
to that effect is made on the first sheet. The "continuation
of second sheet" is to be used where the space on
the second sheet is insufficient for the citation of documents.
Lastly, the "extra sheet" may be used whenever
additional space is required to complete
information from the other sheets.
1800-49 August2001