A method by which necessity of correction of any defect detected in inspection of a product reticle can exactly be judged is proposed, in which device patterns are formed in an exposure area on a product reticle, programmed defects of which transferability being preliminarily evaluated are formed in an evaluation pattern area different from the exposure area, where any defect detected in product reticle inspection is evaluated for its transferability by comparing the detected defect and the preliminarily-evaluated programmed defect based on observation of these defects at the same inspection wavelength, so as to enable an exact judgment on whether the detected defect is affective to transfer of the device pattern or not.
