diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index a2d71db1..6f57acc5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 0.139
   - support generic emulator virtualization
   - added "--host" argument to "osc build" (used to perform the build on a remote host)
-    (patch by Michal Vyskocil <mvyskocil@suse.cz>)
+  - "search --maintained" is obsolete. Abort on usage.
 
 0.138
   - add support to remove repositories recursively (mostly only usefull for admins)
diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index 6323be32..726abf32 100644
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -6349,7 +6349,7 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
     @cmdln.option('-m', '--maintainer', action='store_true',
                         help='as -i, but only maintainer')
     @cmdln.option('--maintained', action='store_true',
-                        help='limit search results to packages with maintained attribute set.')
+                        help='OBSOLETE: please use maintained command instead.')
     @cmdln.option('-M', '--mine', action='store_true',
                         help='shorthand for --bugowner --package')
     @cmdln.option('--csv', action='store_true',
@@ -6392,6 +6392,9 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
         else:
             search_term = args[0]
 
+        if opts.maintained:
+            raise oscerr.WrongOptions('The --maintained option is not anymore supported. Please use the maintained command instead.')
+
         # XXX: is it a good idea to make this the default?
         # support perl symbols:
         if re.match('^perl\(\w+(::\w+)*\)$', search_term):