Japanese patent law Japanese patent law is based on the first-to-file principle and is mainly given force by the of Japan. Article 2 defines an invention as "the highly advanced creation of technical ideas utilizing the law of nature". English translation The de ...

, F-term is a system for

classifying Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

documents according to the technical features of the

invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...

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 of ...

(IPC) or other

patent classification A patent classification is a system for patent examiner, 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 ...

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 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

on Japanese patent classifications (version archived by www.archive.org) * {{DEFAULTSORT:F-Term (Patent Law) Japanese patent law Patent classifications