United States Patent and Trademark Office
Locarno Task Force Pilot Group
Date: September 24, 2010
PROPOSAL SUMMARY
We would again like to express our appreciation to the IB and other Task Force participants for
their work in advancing the effort to enhance the searchability of industrial design documents. In
response to the request for participants to submit proposals, US has developed a proposal for the
creation of several indexing classes which would use the same symbol format as the existing
Locarno classification symbols.
Briefly summarizing these proposed indexing classes, reference is made to the associated annexes
posted to project LP016. The indexing class for shapes, surfaces and colors loosely corresponds
to the earlier proposals which the Pilot Group had considered, having main groups for “repeating
identical shape” and “conforming to human body” in addition to subdivisions for surfaces and
color. Two classes cover simulative effects in industrial designs, one class specific to simulative
forms and the other class specific to simulative motifs, i.e., graphic depiction of a subject or
theme elaborated on the surface of an object. Finally, an indexing class is proposed for
functional aspects of industrial designs, for example having wheel, closure, or handle.
Regarding the issue of how these indexing codes could to be applied to existing design
documents, it is envisioned that the majority of the existing US design documents could have the
relevant indexing codes determined via automated mechanisms. For example, approximately
10% of the US Patent Classification subdivisions for industrial design concepts are directed to the
“simulative” concept and thus could serve as an indicator for selection of the appropriate codes
for simulative form or motif.
US envisions that use of these indexing codes would be discretionary, i.e., one or more indexing
codes would be applied to a given industrial design document if the codes provide useful
information regarding the disclosed design. While it is generally intended that these indexing
codes apply across all Locarno classes, it seems clear that for certain areas, one example being
designs for vehicle tires, it may be more appropriate to consider further subdivision to the
existing Locarno Classification rather than the development of relevant codes in the proposed
indexing classes. As indicated previously, we wholeheartedly endorse the CA suggestion to base
further subdivisions to the Locarno Classification upon existing breakouts in the various national
classification systems as it additionally provides a solution to the issue of handling the back-file
of previously published industrial design documents.
The benefits to application of these indexing codes compared to “repurposing” of existing
Locarno classification codes is obvious in that, while either approach provides more targeted
retrieval for situations where multiple codes are entered as the search query, it avoids the problem
of further overcrowding of Locarno subclasses in situations where the search query is broadened
to the Locarno subclass level. Similar to our comments on the prior proposals, we expect that
the working group will need to consider further guidance such as classification rules, will be very
important in advancing the effort to improve the Locarno classification regardless of the agreed
upon solution.
The approach of creating indexing classes avoids the shortcomings of the prior proposals studied
by the Pilot Group in that it should not require significant effort to modify the existing
international documentation standards for industrial designs, as well as obviate the need for
costly changes to existing information retrieval systems. This proposal could also serve as the
foundation for efforts to create a database providing access to the worldwide collection of
industrial design patent documentation, an important consideration for current and future search
needs.
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