Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Section 508
Manner of Indicating the Claims to Which
the Documents Cited in the International Search Report Are Relevant

(a)  The claims to which cited documents are relevant shall be indicated by placing in the appropriate column of the international search report:

(i) where the cited document is relevant to one claim, the number of that claim; for example, "2" or "17";

(ii) where the cited document is relevant to two or more claims numbered in consecutive order, the number of the first and last claims of the series connected by a hyphen; for example, "1-15" or "2-3";

(iii) where the cited document is relevant to two or more claims that are not numbered in consecutive order, the number of each claim placed in ascending order and separated by a comma or commas; for example, "1, 6" or "1, 7, 10";

(iv) where the cited document is relevant to more than one series of claims under (ii), above, or to claims of both categories (ii) and (iii), above, the series or individual claim numbers and series placed in ascending order using commas to separate the several series, or to separate the numbers of individual claims and each series of claims; for example, "1-6, 9-10, 12-15" or "1, 3-4, 6, 9-11."

(b)  Where different categories apply to the same document cited in an international search report in respect of different claims or groups of claims, each relevant claim or group of claims shall be listed separately opposite each indicated category of relevance. Each category and each relevant claim or group of claims may be separated by a line.

The following example illustrates the situation where a document is of particular relevance under Section 505(b) as to claims 1 to 3 and under Section 505(c) as to claim 4, and indicates the general state of the art under Section 507(c) as to claims 11 and 12:

Category	Citation	Relevant to claim No.
GB, A 392,415 (JONES) 18 May 1933 (18.05.33)
X	Fig.1	1-3
Y	page 3, lines 5-7	4
A	Fig. 5, support 36	11-12