International Patent Classification

The International Patent Classification (IPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system created under the Strasbourg Agreement (1971) and updated on a regular basis by a Committee of Experts, consisting of representatives of the Contracting States of that Agreement with observers from other organisations, such as the European Patent Office. The Strasbourg Agreement is one of a number of treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Patent publications from all of the Contracting States (and also most others) are each assigned at least one classification term indicating the subject to which the invention relates and may also be assigned further classification and indexing terms to give further details of the contents.

Each classification term consists of a symbol such as A01B 1/00 (which represents "hand tools"). The first letter is the "section symbol" consisting of a letter from A ("Human Necessities") to H ("Electricity"). This is followed by a two digit number to give a "class symbol" (A01 represents "Agriculture; forestry; animal husbandry; trapping; fishing"). The final letter makes up the "subclass" (A01B represents "Soil working in agriculture or forestry; parts, details, or accessories of agricultural machines or implements, in general"). The subclass is then followed by a 1 to 3 digit "group" number, an oblique stroke and a number of at least two digits representing a "main group" or "subgroup". A patent examiner assigns a classification to the patent application or other document at the most detailed level which is applicable to its contents.

A: Human Necessities

B: Performing Operations, Transporting

C: Chemistry, Metallurgy

D: Textiles, Paper

E: Fixed Constructions

F: Mechanical Engineering, Lighting, Heating, Weapons

G: Physics

H: Electricity

For the first seven editions of the IPC, the classification was updated approximately every five years. From the eighth edition, which came into force January 1, 2006, the classification has been divided into "core" and "advanced" levels. The core level is to be updated on a three-yearly basis. The advanced level provides more detailed classification and is updated more frequently (probably every three months). According to the EPO, any reclassification efforts will not be released until all affected documents have been reclassified.

International Patent classification edition 8 is designed to allow patent offices the choice between a simpler to implement but more general classification using the core classifications, or a more detailed but more complex to maintain advanced classification.

History

The origin of the International Patent Classification is the "International Classification" created under the European Convention on the International Classification of Patent for Inventions. The first edition of the International Classification became effective on September 1, 1968. It consisted of eight sections, 103 classes, and 594 subclasses, as compared with the IPC eighth edition consisting of eight sections, 129 classes, 639 subclasses, 7,314 main groups, and 61,397 subgroups.

In 1967, BIRPI, the predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the Council of Europe began negotiations aiming to "internationalize" the International Classification. Their efforts bore the Strasbourg Agreement in 1971.

See also

• Espacenet
• European Classification system (ECLA)
• F-term
• INPADOC

External links

• IPC main page on the WIPO web site
• English IPC versions on the WIPO web site
  • IPC version 7 - obsolete (valid until December 31 2005)
  • IPC version 8 - valid since January 1 2006
  • Guide to the International Patent Classification (Version 2009)