Trilateral Classification
Harmony Project
IPC Forum
Geneva,
13 February 2006
Yoshihiro FUJI
Director
Examination Policy Planning Office
Japan Patent Office (JPO)
Reasons for Harmonization
Increase in documents to be classified
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
> 500,000 (EPO: ECLA)
> 500,000 (JPO: FI)
> 300,000 (USPTO: USPC) docs / year
- Further increase expected
•
Establish a well-structured documentation
•
•
•
-
Harmonize internal schemes
Facilitate access to TOs’ documents with common
schemes
Enhance the availability of TOs’ documents
Further expand (to be IPC Advanced Level)
Share reclassification work
Reduce classification effort (for EP)
Reasons for Harmonization
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
Three different classification systems
(IPC-AL: 69,000 Classifications)
Office
EPO
JPO
USPTO
System
ECLA
FI
USPC
Basis
IPC
IPC
Applied to
most of
JP only US only
PCT min.
Classifications 125,000
190,000 155,000
History of Harmony Project
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
2000.11 18th Trilateral Conference
- TOs agreed on creating pilot projects
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
2001.2
Committee of Experts of IPC Union
30th session
- 19 fields selected for TOs’ harmony projects
(T001-T019)
- 7 of the 19 fields are from IPC revision projects
History of Harmony Project
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
Trilateral Working Group on Classification
2002.9
2003.1
2003.9
2004.2
2004.10
2005.3
2005.9
2006.3
7th session - new project (T020)
8th session - new projects (T021-T023)
9th session - new projects (T024-T030)
10th session - new projects (T031-T032)
11th session - new projects (T035-T037)
12th session - new projects (T038-T047)
13th session - new projects (T048-T056)
14th session (at Berlin, EPO)
Actions
Reasons
History
Actions
Select technical fields for harmonization
e.g. Wireless Communication Networks, Business
methods
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
(Phase A) Initial Determination of Scope
(Phase B) Project Plan
(Phase C) Provisional Scheme Development
(Phase D) Test of Provisional Scheme
(Phase E) Final Scheme Agreement
(Phase F) Documents Reclassification
Reasons
Procedural steps –
exchange & compare schemes
History
Actions
Procedure
Exchange & Compare current schemes
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
ECLA
. EPtext1
. . EPtext2
. . EPtext3
FI
. JPtext1
. . JPtext2
. . JPtext3
. . . JPtext4
USPC
. UStext1
. UStext2
. UStext3
Procedural steps –
discuss solutions
Reasons
History
Discuss solutions
Actions
Procedure
E-forum
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
E-mail
Meeting /Exchange
(Trilateral) Harmony Visit (2005.6~)
Procedural steps –
discuss solutions
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Harmony visit (2005.6~)
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
EP/JP Harmony visit (at EPO)
- 19 fields
Trilateral Harmony visit (at USPTO)
- 10 fields
Procedural steps –
discuss solutions
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Effect of Harmony visit
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
Existing projects
- Acceleration of discussion on classification
harmonization
Potential projects
- Creation of new projects(T052&T053)
Reasons
Procedural steps –
agree on common scheme
History
Actions
Procedure
Agree on common scheme
e.g. Business Methods
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
ECLA
FI
USPC
. G06Q30/00C
. . G06Q30/00C2
. . G06Q30/00C4
. G06F17/60,300
. . G06F17/60,342
. . 3044D
. . 3043N
. . 3050Y
Procedural steps –
agree on common scheme
Reasons
Agree on common scheme (Phase C)
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
HARMONY (ECLA/FI/USPC)
. G06Q30/00C
. Data processing in buying/selling or leasing
transactions
Harmony to IPC
Status
. . 3044D
.. for matching
. . 3043N
.. for auction
. . G06Q30/00C2 .. for electronic shopping, e.g. electronic
catalogue, remote browsing or ordering
. . 3050Y
..
.. electronic catalogue
G06F17/60,342 .. for leasing transaction
Reasons
Procedural steps –
finalization of project
History
Actions
Classification test (Phase D)
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
Final agreement (Phase E)
Shared reclassification (Phase F)
Actions for ALS*
*Advanced Level Special Subcommittee
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
Select technical fields for harmonization
e.g. Wireless Communication Networks, Business
methods
(Phase A) Initial Determination of Scope
(Phase B) Project Plan
(Phase C) Provisional Scheme Development
(Phase D) Test of Provisional Scheme
(Phase E) Final Scheme Agreement
(Phase F) Documents Reclassification
Phase C Completed
- IPC Revision Proposal to ALS
Actions for ALS
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Phase C Completed
- IPC revision proposal to ALS (SC-project)
ALS Approval
- Creation of A-project
Harmony to IPC
Status
- Invitation for comments & discussion
ALS Approval
- Documents reclassification
Completed
- Entering into force of IPC-AL
Harmony to IPC
Reasons
No.of divisions
History
Actions
Harmonized
FI
200K
USPC
Procedure
Actions for ALS
150K
ECLA
Harmony to IPC
Advanced Level
Status
68711groups
100K
50K
Reformed IPC
Int.Cl4
1985
Int.Cl5 Int.Cl6 Int.Cl7
1990
1995
2000
2006
2009
Core Level
(30% of AL
Classes)
2012
Effects of Harmony project &
reformed IPC
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
e.g. Combating harmful chemical
substances by chemical means
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Different search in each classification system
Status
EPO
JPO
USPTO
Others
A62D3/00A
A62D3/00,301
588/300
A62D3/00
ECLA Search
FI Search
USPC Search
IPC Search
Effects of Harmony project &
reformed IPC
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
The same search strategy applied among TOs
according to harmonized classification scheme
Harmony to IPC
Status
EPO
JPO
USPTO
Others
A62D3/00E
A62D3/00,400
588/302
A62D3/00
ECLA ＝ FI ＝ USPC Search
IPC Search
Effects of Harmony project &
reformed IPC
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
The same search strategy applied among all the
documents classified according to the IPC-AL
EPO
JPO
USPTO
Others
A62D3/1010
A62D3/1010
A62D3/1010
A62D3/1010
IPC Advanced level search
Current status
Reasons
History
Actions
45 Active Harmony projects
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
6 Harmony projects already
forwarded to ALS
Current projects 1/3
Project
IPC
Subject
Phase
T001
A62D3/
Combating Harmful Chemical Substances by Chemical Means
F
T002
G06Q
Business Methods
C
T003
C40B
Combinatorial Chemistry
D
T004
G06F19/
Bioinformatics
D
T005
H04N
Interactive Video Distribution Systems
C
Actions for ALS
T007
G01N
Investigating or Analyzing Atomic Surface Structure by ScanningProbe Techniques
A
Harmony to IPC
T008
B82
Nano-Technology
B
Status
T009
F16D
Brakes - Disc, Drum and their controls
C
T010
B60K6/
Hybrid Vehicles Having Electrical and Internal Combustion
Engines
E
T012
H01L51/
Organic Solid State Devices
C
T014
B60W
Conjoint control of drive units; Conjoint control of at least two subunits thereof
C
T020
G03G13/,15/
Electric or magnetic imagery (eg photocopying): forming toner
images, perfecting toner images
A
T021
G05G1/14
Pedals
F
T023
G06T
Image processing
C
T024
H02M7/42
Inverter devices
D
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Current projects 2/3
Reasons
History
Actions
Procedure
Actions for ALS
Harmony to IPC
Status
Project
IPC
Subject
Phase
T025
H04W
Wireless Communication
E
T026
G09G3/28
Driving of Plasma Displays
C
T027
G05D1/02
Control of position or course (Automatic pilot)
C
T028
B24B
Making abrading tools
A
T030
B42D
Credit cards
A
T031
H01M
Lithium Ion Batteries
D
T032
H04H
Broadcasting distribution systems
D
T033
B60R
Air bags for vehicles
A
T035
F24F5/
Air-conditioning systems (outdoor units)
C
T036
G03F1/
Photo-masks and screens
A
T037
H01L33/
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
A
T038
A01M
Scaring and repelling devices
A
T039
B23K26/
Working with laser beams
A
T040
C02F1/521/56,5/00
Water treatment
A
T041
E05B
Locks
A
Current projects 3/3
Project
IPC
T042
F16H
T043
Reasons
Subject
Phase
Hydrostatic transmissions
A
G06F21/
Computer security
A
T044
H01R12/
Electric connectors specially adapted for printed circuits
A
History
T045
H01R13/
Details of electric connectors
A
Actions
T046
H01R24/
Overall structure of electric connectors
A
Procedure
T047
H04N7/26
Digital coding of video
A
Actions for ALS
T048
A61K31/
Medicinal Preparations containing organic active ingredients
A
Harmony to IPC
T049
C07D
Heterocyclic compounds
A
Status
T050
C07H
Carbohydrates
A
T051
C07J
Steroids
A
T052
G01S1/,5/
Position fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position-line
determination (GPS)
A
T053
G06F3/
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)
A
T054
G04C9/,11/,
G04G5/,7/
Wave clocks
A
T055
G04 except
T054
Horology
A
Printing plates or foils; materials for surfaces used in printing
machines for printing, inking, damping, etc.; preparing such
surfaces for use and conserving them
A
T056
B41N
Thank you for your attention !
IPC Forum
Geneva,
13 February 2006