The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a

patent classification A patent classification is a system for examiners of patent offices or other people to categorize (code) documents, such as published patent applications, according to the technical features of their content. Patent classifications make it feasib ...

system, which has been jointly developed by the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

(EPO) and the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

(USPTO).CPC replaces ECLA on Espacenet
, Patent Information News issue 4/2012, December 2012, p. 4. The CPC is substantially based on the previous

European classification system The European Classification (ECLA) is a former patent classification system maintained by the European Patent Office (EPO). The ECLA classification system contains 134 000 subdivisions. It was introduced mainly as an extension of the International P ...

(ECLA), which itself was a more specific and detailed version of the

International Patent Classification The International Patent Classification (IPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system used in over 100 countries to classify the content of patents in a uniform manner. It was created under the Strasbourg Agreement (1971), one of a number o ...

(IPC) system.

Structure

Patent publications 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. The CPC system has over 250,000 categories. Each classification term consists of a symbol such as "A01B33/00" (which represents "tilling implements with rotary driven tools"). The first letter is the "section symbol" consisting of a letter from "A" ("Human Necessities") to "H" ("Electricity") or "Y" for emerging cross-sectional technologies. 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" ("00") or "subgroup". A

patent examiner A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an employee, usually a civil servant with a scientific or engineering background, working at a patent office. Major employers of patent examiners are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Un ...

assigns a classification to the patent application or other document at the most detailed level which is applicable to its contents. A01B

: A: Human Necessities : B: Operations and Transport : C: Chemistry and Metallurgy : D: Textiles : E: Fixed Constructions : F: Mechanical Engineering : G: Physics : H: Electricity : Y: Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies This classification closely follows the International Patent Classification. An example of the CPC classification scheme in the area of agriculture is shown in the figure. The text in curly brackets refers to text provided by the CPC classification scheme. The rest of the text refers to text originating from the International Patent Classification. The CPC scheme is accompanied by a set of CPC Definitions, which are documents which explain how to use the CPC scheme for classifying and searching a specific technology. A part of the CPC Definition related to the scheme A01B is shown in the second figure.

Hierarchy

*Section (one letter A to H and also Y) **Class (two digits) ***Subclass (one letter) ****Group (one to three digits) *****Main group and subgroups (at least two digits)
In the above example "A01B33/00" *Section A **Class 01 ***Subclass B ****Group 33 *****Main group 00

History

Both the EPO and USPTO have been using the CPC since 1 January 2013. It replaced the ECLA system and will replace by 2015 the

United States Patent Classification system The United States Patent Classification is an official patent classification system in use and maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It was mostly replaced by the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) on January 1, ...

(USPC) as the official patent classification scheme of both the EPO and the USPTO. The patent offices of several EPO member states also use CPC, for example those of Austria, Finland, Greece, the United Kingdom, Spain (

OEPM The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (Spanish: ''Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas'', sometimes abbreviated SPTO or OEPM) is an autonomous agency of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain. The Spanish Patent and Trademark Of ...

), and Sweden ( PRV) and some other offices are negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) like Chile (INAPI), Canada (CIPO), Australia and Israel. On 4 June 2013, the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) agreed with the EPO that as of January 2014, SIPO would classify newly published patent applications in certain technical fields into the CPC. First SIPO staff will be trained by EPO. Starting in 2016, SIPO will strive to classify its new patent applications according to the CPC in all technical areas. The classification data is expected to be shared with the EPO. On 5 June 2013, the USPTO and the

Korean Intellectual Property Office The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is the patent office and intellectual property office of South Korea. In 2000, the name of the office was changed from "Korean Industrial Property Office" to "Korean Intellectual Property Office". It i ...

(KIPO) announced the launch of a pilot project in which KIPO will classify some of its patent documents using the CPC system. The project has been said to mark a major step towards KIPO classifying all of its patent collection using the CPC. On 26 September 2013, the EPO and the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property ( Rospatent) agreed that as of January 2016, Rospatent will classify patent documents currently being processed into the CPC, and begin to classify previously published patent documents in 2017. The data will be shared with the EPO. On 16 July 2015, the EPO and the

Mexican Institute of Industrial Property The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property ( es, Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial; IMPI) is the patent and trademark administration body of Mexico. The IMPI was created on 10 December 1993 by the '.utility model A utility model is a patent-like intellectual property right to protect inventions. This type of right is available in many countries but, notably, not in the United States, United Kingdom or Canada. Although a utility model is similar to a patent ...

documents in 2017. The data will be shared with the EPO.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.cooperativepatentclassification.org/ (jointly managed by the EPO and the USPTO)
Cooperative Patent Classification search
at

Espacenet Espacenet (formerly stylized as ''esp@cenet'') is a free online service for searching patents and patent applications. Espacenet was developed by the European Patent Office (EPO) together with the member states of the European Patent Organisati ...

Cooperative Patent Classification search
at

USPTO The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

Patent classifications