In Japanese patent law, F-term is a system for classifying

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese patent documents according to the technical features of the

invention An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...

s described in them. It is not a replacement for 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) or other

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 ...

s, but complements other systems by providing a means for searching documents from different viewpoints. A symbol attached to a patent document, indicating that the invention disclosed in the document has a particular technical feature, is also called an F-term.

External links

*
F-term lists
an
F-term search
on the Industrial Property Digital Library (IPDL) by INPIT, a Japanese governmental agency
Japanese FI classification and F-terms now available in English (March 2001)
by the European Patent Office on Japanese patent classifications (version archived by www.archive.org) * {{DEFAULTSORT:F-Term (Patent Law) Japanese patent law Patent classifications