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  • Patent Index 2020
Chapter I – Introduction
  1. Home
  2. Legal texts
  3. Guidelines for Examination
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Part B
  6. Chapter I
  7. 2. Search division
  8. 2.1 Consultation with other examiners
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2. Search division

Overview

2.1 Consultation with other examiners 

The search division entrusted with the search may consult other examiners for advice on any number of issues, for example:

(i)online searches in databases with which the search division is not familiar; 

(ii)understanding aspects of the claimed invention which may lie outside the area of technical expertise of the search division; 

(iii)constructing a search strategy (see also B‑I, 2.2);

(iv)interpreting the relevance of a prior-art document for determining the patentability of claimed subject-matter (see B‑X, 9.2).

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