Where it is held that the application and/or the invention to which it relates does not satisfy the requirements of the EPC, then corresponding objections are raised in the search opinion.

The search opinion should, as a general rule, cover all objections to the application (but see XII, 3.4). These objections may relate to substantive matters (e.g. the subject matter of the application is not patentable) or to formal matters (e.g. failure to comply with one or more of the requirements specified in Rule 26 to 29, 32, 34, 35 and 36) or to both.

Where claims relating to a method of treatment of the human or animal body or methods of diagnosis practiced on the human or animal body have been searched because their reformulation into an non-excluded format can be envisaged at the time of the search (see VIII, 2), the search opinion should, nonetheless, object to these claims as being excluded from an industrial application.