1 / 24

Introduction

Introduction. History of the IPC. Necessity of special classification system for Patent Documents Alphabetical Lists of Patents (France, 1771) Classification Systems - Classes of technical Subject Matter (USA, 1872) Search files with universal State of Art

tadeo
Download Presentation

Introduction

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Introduction

  2. History of the IPC • Necessity of special classification system for Patent Documents • Alphabetical Lists of Patents (France, 1771) • Classification Systems - Classes of technical Subject Matter (USA, 1872) • Search files with universal State of Art • Concordance between National Classifications - Inefficient • Reclassification of foreign Patent Documents - Inefficient • Proposals for an international classification in 1904 and 1926 failed

  3. Modern History of the IPC • 1952 - Council of Europe initiates work on European Patent Classification • 1968 - European Classification 1st edition of the IPC • 1971 - Diplomatic Conference on the IPC Strasbourg • 1975 - Strasbourg Agreement entered into force 2nd edition of IPC • Every five years - a new edition of the IPC • 2006 - 8th edition of the IPC – IPC Reform • Publication cycles 3 months to 3 years • 2009 - Yearly publications • 2011 - IPC Simplification • Discontinuation of Core/Advanced Levels (full IPC/Main group)

  4. Strasbourg Agreement • 1975 - Strasbourg Agreement entered into force • IPC Union • initially 13 members • currently 61 member states • in addition 4 organizations (EPO, EAPO, ARIPO, OAPI) • Rights of Member States - participate in improving the IPC • Obligation of Member States - allot IPC symbols to national published patent documents • IPC applied by > 100 countries • (e.g. 147 PCT members as of May 2013)

  5. Bodies of IPC Union • Assembly of IPC Union- every two years with WIPO General Assembly • Committee of Experts (CE) - once a year executive body adopts • IPC new versions, general rules(IPC Guide, Guidelines, etc.) • IPC Revision Working Group (WG)- twice a year, technical body prepares IPC new versions, definitions, etc. • Ad hoc Task Forces –particular tasks, e.g. systematic maintenance, • training examples. • International Bureau (IB) at WIPO- administrative support, preparation of IPC publication, maintenance of Master Files and Database, etc.

  6. What is the IPC ? Similar to library classification systems, e.g  Dewey Decimal Classification  Library of Congress Classification • Somehow similar to other classification systems: • ICD: International Classification of Diseases (WHO) • ISCO: International Standard Classification of Occupations (ILO) • CAS registry numbers (Chemical Abstracts Sevice) • Nice Classification: International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registrations of Marks (WIPO) • Locarno Classification: International Classification for Industrial Designs (WIPO) • Vienna Classification: International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (WIPO)

  7. What is the IPC ? • System for classifying technical subject matter, mainly patent literature • Specially adapted for needs of patent documentation • Applied to >95% of patent documents worldwide • Available in most databases for search ►Efficient tool for searching patent literature

  8. Purposes of the IPC • Primary purpose: effective search tool for the retrieval of patent information: • ordering patent documents (similar technical content) • searching patent literature • Other purposes: • selective dissemination of information • investigation of the state of the art • preparation of industrial property statistics

  9. What is the IPC ? ► Large set of symbols/codes (~70000) e.g.: A23G 9/00 ► Title for each symbol A23G 9/00 Frozen sweets, e.g. ice confectionery, ice-cream; Mixtures therefor ► "IPC scheme": all symbols and titles + hierarchy + additional elements

  10. Symbols presented on front pages of patent documents

  11. Symbols presented in search reports

  12. WIPO Patentscope - Interface

  13. Symbols presented as database content

  14. Databases can be searched for keywords, specific terms More sophisticated approaches: - Natural language search - Text mining techniques Why classification? Text Mining  Indexed Databases Advantages of using IPC in comparison to term / keyword searching?

  15. Advantages of using IPC Language independent e.g. searching Chinese, Korean, Japanese patents (> 50% of weekly publications) often only English abstracts, titles, machine translation quality machine translation of full text only after search, i.e. not available for full text search

  16. Searching Japanese Patent Documents

  17. Searching Chinese Patent Documents

  18. Advantages of using IPC Terminology / ”jargon” independent: • Scientific literature Patent specifications • Patent specifications often written by lawyers: • > non-experts, generalists; don’t know specific terminology • > prefer generic, unspecific terminology for legal reasons, • e.g. to avoid any unnecessary limitation of the scope of protection as defined by claims

  19. Examples of “Lawyerish” Swimming pool = “water retaining recreational structure” Balloon = “spherical device filled with gas for recreational purposes” Paper bin = “arrangement for the disposal of refuse” Shoe = “footwear”

  20. Advantages of using IPC Terminology / ”jargon” independent Summary:Problems with keyword searching Use of inappropriate, or avoiding of appropriate terminology Occurring of unwanted, “competing” terminology Varying options for describing features Different content of different parts of specification

  21. Advantages of using IPC • Standardized application to documents by experts of patent offices: →Indexing, added value • - Early classification after application • > used for first publication (18 months after filing) • - Reviewed by examiner at examination • > classification of granted patents may differ

  22. Advantages of using IPC Concept search: title of classification entry = standardized set of keywords ► well defined technical subject matter ► rather fixed, i.e. not changing with time ► therefore in particular useful, e.g., for - preparing industrial property statistics, - monitoring technological progress, patent landscaping - selective dissemination of information (SDI) in enterprises

  23. Language independent Terminology / ”jargon” independent Standardized application to documents (by experts of patent offices) Available for (old) patent documents where no full text of claims / description is available Concept search Advantages of using IPC > allows for more complete search results than pure text searching

  24. Example: Helmets Search in Patentscope all WO docments with IPC: Q1: A42B 3/00 (Helmets) 922 hits Keyword search in Espacenet all EP docs with Q2: “helmet*” 1061 hits Q3: “headgear” 310 hits Q2 OR Q3 1328 hits Q1 AND (Q2 OR Q3)682 hits  240 documents classified in A42B 3/00have neither “helmet*” nor “headgear” in title or abstract!

More Related