(a) Where the written opinion of the International Preliminary Examining Authority or the international preliminary examination report is based on a sequence listing not forming part of the international application but furnished for the purposes of the international preliminary examination, the written opinion and the international preliminary examination report of the International Preliminary Examining Authority shall so indicate.
(b) Where a meaningful written opinion of the International Preliminary Examining Authority cannot be established, or a meaningful international preliminary examination cannot be carried out, as to whether the claimed invention appears to be novel, to involve an inventive step (to be non-obvious) and to be industrially applicable, because a sequence listing is not available to the International Preliminary Examining Authority in the required form, that Authority shall so state in the written opinion and in the international preliminary examination report.
(c) The International Preliminary Examining Authority shall indelibly mark, on the first sheet of any sequence listing on paper which does not form part of the international application but was furnished for the purposes of the international preliminary examination, the words "SEQUENCE LISTING NOT FORMING PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION" or their equivalent in the language of publication of the international application. Where such sequence listing is furnished in electronic form on a physical medium, that Authority shall physically label that medium accordingly.
(d) The International Preliminary Examining Authority shall keep in its files one copy of any sequence listing, whether on paper or in electronic form, which does not form part of the international application but was furnished for the purposes of the international preliminary examination.
(e) Any International Preliminary Examining Authority which requires, for the purposes of the international preliminary examination, the furnishing of a sequence listing in electronic form shall notify the International Bureau accordingly. In that notification, the Authority shall specify the means of transmittal of the sequence listing in electronic form accepted by it in accordance with Annex F. The International Bureau shall promptly publish details of the notification in the Gazette.
(f) Where the national Office or intergovernmental organization that acted as the International Searching Authority also acts as the International Preliminary Examining Authority, any sequence listing not forming part of the international application but furnished to that Office or organization for the purposes of the international search shall be considered to have been furnished to it also for the purposes of the international preliminary examination.
