Occasionally matters of substantive examination other than novelty or inventive step have a direct bearing on the execution of the search and may result in a limitation thereof, ; here again these opinions are subject to review by the Examining Division (see T 178/84, OJ 5/1989, 157, and T 631/97, OJ 1/2001, 13 and II, 4.2(iii) and XII, 1.2).

Examples are to be found in chapter VII - Unity of invention and chapter VIII - Subject-matter to be excluded from the search.