Overview of Electronic Lifecycle of USPTO Reclassification Projects

1. Overview of Electronic Lifecycle of USPTO Reclassification Projects United States Patent and Trademark Office Office of Patent Classification

2. Reclassification Project Workflow • From project scope to placing documents • Business rules • Reclass documentation • Reports

3. Where Do Reclassification Projects Come From? • International Harmonization projects: USPTO, EPO and JPO agree to reclassify specific areas simultaneously • USPTO examination staff identifies areas where reclassification is needed to meet growth or classify emerging technology

4. Electronic Reclassification Projects Components • Classification data must be standardized to facilitate electronic storage and updating • Business rules must accommodate the various roles and privileges for project members as well as the different project phases

5. Initial Classification ScheduleClassification Definition Development • The Administrator will create the reclassification project using subclasses, patents, TPCs, or a combination thereof • The Administrator will assign the roles to the requested project members

6. Initial Classification ScheduleClassification Definition Development • The Project Leader can establish multiple working schedules to test various retrieval strategies • Business Rules are enforced within each working schedule as well as between multiple working schedules in a reclassification project

7. Initial Classification Schedule/Classification Definition Development (Continued) • What is required from a contractor? • Review the scope • Create a draft schedule • Get input/direction from USPTO personnel on draft schedule • Finalize Draft initial schedule and definition development

8. CDS Desktop electronic reclassification tool

9. Incorporation of workflow

10. CDS Desktop provides functionality for creating classification schedule, definitions, and patent placement

11. Reclassification Project Updates • The “initial working schedule” includes temporary subclasses for weekly issues, MTR, and updates emanating from recently completed reclassification projects • These documents must be moved into appropriate subclasses prior to the project being promoted to the Tentative MoC

12. Schedule Testing • The number of documents to be tested in the new draft schedule is dependent on where the project originated. If the project is a result of an international harmonization project, then 10% of documents are placed in the new schedule • This project originated in the USPTO thus about 10% are tested (numbers may vary slightly from US project to US Project) • Adjust schedule and definitions as appropriate -- if a project originates from an international harmonization project, the contractor must compare the schedule with the EPO and JPO schedules

13. Patent Document Placement • CDS Desktop provides functionality for passing a listing of project patents to the EAST retrieval AIS tool • Project personnel may use drag & drop functionality, or alternatively use the PCI form or the Patent Grid to reclassify the patents belonging to the reclassification project

14. Reclassification Project Validation • Project patents in the temporary subclasses for weekly issues, MTR, and updates emanating from recently completed reclassification projects must be moved into appropriate subclasses prior to the project being promoted to the Tentative MoC • The Administrator validates the project patents, as well as linkages in the classification definitions, prior to promoting from the TMoC to the MoC • Many of the components of the Class Order are exported directly from the CDS Desktop database

15. Promotion to Production • Following the approval of the classification schedule and placement of the majority of patent documents into the new subclasses, the project is promoted to the Tentative MoC (TMoC) • The Administrator assigns “final” numbers prior to promoting to the TMoC • Classification definitions outside the scope of the project can be edited as needed to update existing linkages as well as create new linkages – the TMoC provides access to version control functionality for classification definitions • Changing the project scope requires backing out of the TMoC

16. Publication of reclassification project information • Following the promotion of the electronic reclassification project, the necessary data is exported from the CDS Desktop AIS tool for creation of the Classification Order • The issuance of the Classification Order coincides with the official availability of the data in USPTO search systems

17. Reclassification Project Documentation • This phase takes the draft schedule and develops it into a comprehensive final classification containing: • Manual of Classification changes • Changes to US-IPC Concordance • Changes to Index to US Classification system • List of Classification Change Sheets • Working Number-Final Number Translation Lists • Final Number-Working Number Translation Lists

18. Reclassification reports

19. USPC-to-IPC “Reverse” Concordance Created by inverting the data in the USPC-to-IPC concordance -- useful as an entry point into the USPC system