Access to patent information and the role of classification

1
Access to patent information and the role of
classification

• Mikhail Makarov
• World Intellectual Property Organization
• IPC Forum 2006
• Geneva

2
Aspects of Patent Information

• Legal - rights for invention
• Economic - assessing economic dynamics
• Technological - technology transfer

3
Advantages of Patent Information

• Uniform structure
• Most recent information
• Not published in other form of literature
• Industry-oriented information
• Problem-solving approach
• Over 50 million documents
• Can be freely used to support research

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Uniform Structure of Patent Documentation

• Presentation and data elements follow WIPO
  standards
• Abstract - concise summary of technical
  disclosure
• Description - background and details of invention
• Claims - new technical solution

5
Dissemination of Patent Information

• Industrial Property Offices
• Patent Information Centres (over 300 in Europe)
• Commercial vendors
• Medium
• - paper
• - optical discs
• - Internet

6
Use of Patent Information

• To avoid redundant research
• To evaluate specific technology
• To identify new technical solutions
• To identify state of the art
• To assess novelty and patentability of potential
  inventions
• To monitor technological progress
• To monitor competitors activities
• To identify existing IP rights

7
Unique Applications of Patent Classification

• Use of patent information for
• - investigating the state of the art
• - preparation of patent statistics
• - organization of search files
• - selective dissemination of information

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Brief History of Patent Classifications

• Alphabetical Lists of Patents (France, 1771)
• Classification Systems
• - US Classification (1872)
• - German Classification (1877)
• - British Classification (1880)
• - Proposal for an international classification
  (1904)
• - European Classification - 1st edition of the
  IPC (1968)

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Brief History of the IPC

• 1971 - Strasbourg Agreement
• 1974 - 2nd edition of the IPC
• 2000 - 7th edition of the IPC
• 2006 - 8th edition of the IPC (reformed IPC)

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IPC Growth(classification groups)
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IPC Growth for Some Rapidly Expanding Technologies
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National Versions of the IPC

• Chinese
• Croatian
• Czech
• Dutch
• German
• Hungarian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Russian
• Serbian
• Spanish

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Other Existing Patent Classifications

• UK Patent Classification - 40,000 groups
• DECLA (German Office) - 100,000 groups
• ECLA (EPO) - 130,000 groups
• US Patent Classification - 150,000 groups
• Japan Patent Classification - 190,000 groups

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Different Kinds of Search with the Use of the IPC

• Novelty Search
• Patentability or Validity Search
• Infringement Search
• Informative Search (state of the art search)
• Legal Status Search

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Searching of Patent Information

• Text searching
• - Databases containing abstracts
• - Full-text databases
• Classification-based searching
• - IPC
• - Other classifications

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Text Searching

• Advantages
• - Easiness to use
• - all invention details may be retrieved
• Disadvantages
• - Problem of synonyms
• - Various languages
• - Inconsistent terminology

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Classification-based searching

• Advantages
• - Gives more complete results than text
  searching
• - Independent of the language of the text
• - Independent of the changes in terminology
• Disadvantages
• - Complex structure of classifications
• - Requires study of classification rules

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Searching of patent information

• Classification adds information value to patent
  documents
• Combination of classification-based and text
  searching gives best results

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Identify IPC for Search
Similar documents Catchword
index SUBJECT OF SEARCH IPCCLASS

IPC
Section
Class
Subclass
Main Group
One-dot Group
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Three-Step Retrieval Strategy