It should be noted that "date of filing" in Art. 54(2) and 54(3) is to be interpreted as meaning the date of priority in appropriate cases (see Chapter V). It should be remembered that different claims, or different alternatives claimed in one claim, may have different effective dates, i.e the date of filing or (one of) the claimed priority date(s). The question of novelty must be considered against each claim (or part of a claim where a claim specifies a number of alternatives) and the state of the art in relation to one claim or one part of a claim may include matter, e.g. an intermediate document (see B-X, 9.2(iv)), which cannot be cited against another claim or another alternative in the same claim because it has an earlier effective date.

Of course, if all the matter in the state of the art was made available to the public before the date of the earliest priority document, the examiner need not (and should not) concern himself with the allocation of effective dates.