WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION
SPECIAL UNION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PATENT
CLASSIFICATION
(IPC UNION)
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
Date
October 1, 2013
November 5, 2013
By
AD
Fiévet
Contact: WIPO: Patrick FIÉVET
Version
0.1
1.01
Status
Draft
Revised
(patrick.fievet@wipo.int)
Modification
Creation
Simplification
and QA
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
2.
General description ............................................................................................................ 3
3.
Scope of the Illustrations File............................................................................................. 3
4.
3.1.
Inventory of illustrations ............................................................................................ 3
3.2.
Source of Illustrations entries ..................................................................................... 3
Illustrations File structure................................................................................................... 3
4.1.
IPCIllustrations tag ..................................................................................................... 4
4.1.1.
4.2.
edition attribute .................................................................................................. 4
IPCIllustrationsSection tag ......................................................................................... 4
4.2.1.
symbol attribute: ................................................................................................. 4
4.2.2.
illustrationsNo attribute: ..................................................................................... 4
4.3.
IPCIllustrationsClass tag ............................................................................................ 4
4.3.1.
symbol attribute: ................................................................................................. 4
4.3.2.
illustrationsNo attribute: ..................................................................................... 5
4.4.
IPCIllustrationsSubclass tag ....................................................................................... 5
4.4.1.
symbol attribute: ................................................................................................. 5
4.4.2.
illustrationsNo attribute: ..................................................................................... 5
4.5.
IPCIllustrationsMaingroup tag ................................................................................... 5
4.5.1.
symbol attribute: ................................................................................................. 5
4.5.2.
illustrationsNo attribute: ..................................................................................... 5
4.5.3.
entryType attribute ............................................................................................. 5
4.6.
IPCIllustrationsGroup tag .......................................................................................... 6
4.6.1.
symbol attribute: ................................................................................................. 6
4.6.2.
illustrationsNo attribute: ..................................................................................... 6
4.6.3.
entryType attribute ............................................................................................. 6
4.7.
illustrations tag ........................................................................................................... 6
4.8.
illustration tag ............................................................................................................. 6
4.8.1.
type attribute:...................................................................................................... 6
4.8.2.
label attribute: ..................................................................................................... 7
4.8.3.
src attribute: ........................................................................................................ 7
4.9.
Illustrationversion tag ................................................................................................. 7
Contents
4.9.1.
5.
format attribute ................................................................................................... 7
Illustrations fragment samples ........................................................................................... 7
5.1.
6.
ii
Simple illustration entry ............................................................................................. 7
Format ................................................................................................................................ 8
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
3/9
1. Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide complementary details to the
“IPC Master File specification” used as reference document.
It describes the structure and content of the International Patent Classification (IPC)
electronic layer Illustrations File.
It uses, wherever possible, reference to International standards, in particular WIPO ST.8.
The format of the Illustrations File is primarily an exchange format aiming at easy
interface between IT systems of different types.
2. General description
See brief content description, time dependency and file naming convention in the IPC
master file specification document.
3. Scope of the Illustrations File
3.1. Inventory of illustrations
The Illustrations File is an inventory of all illustrations attached to IPC scheme and
Definitions. It also provides the name of the file in which these illustrations are stored.
3.2. Source of Illustrations entries
The Illustrations File is a generated file based on the Illustrations related to IPC scheme
and Definitions.
4. Illustrations File structure
Each Illustrations File consists of a list of illustration entries, identified by the symbol of
the IPC that it belongs to. The Illustrations File contains information whether an
D:\533571106.doc
17/02/16
ver 1.01
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
4/9
illustration is used for illustrating the IPC scheme or the Definitions. The Illustrations
File is language independent.
4.1. IPCIllustrations tag
The root tag, with the following attribute:
4.1.1. edition attribute
The version of the IPC associated to this file.
Values: using the reformed IPC convention (YYYYMMDD where Y=Year, M=
Month, D=Day).
4.2. IPCIllustrationsSection tag
Embedding tag for the Section in which the following illustrations are found, with the
following attributes:
4.2.1. symbol attribute:
The symbol of the section.
Values: 1 character (the Section symbol).
4.2.2. illustrationsNo attribute:
The number of the illustrations in the Section. For sections the value is always 0.
4.3. IPCIllustrationsClass tag
Embedding tag for the class in which the following illustrations are found, with the
following attributes:
4.3.1. symbol attribute:
The symbol of the Class.
Values: 3 characters (the Section and Class symbols).
D:\533571106.doc
17/02/16
ver 1.01
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
5/9
4.3.2. illustrationsNo attribute:
The number of the illustrations in the Class. For classes the value is always 0.
4.4. IPCIllustrationsSubclass tag
Embedding tag for the Subclass in which the following illustrations are found, with the
following attributes:
4.4.1. symbol attribute:
The symbol of the Subclass.
Values: 4 characters (the Section, Class and Subclass symbols).
4.4.2. illustrationsNo attribute:
The number of the illustrations in the Subclass. For subclasses the value is always
0.
4.5. IPCIllustrationsMaingroup tag
Embedding tag for the Maingroup in which the following illustrations are found, with
the following attributes:
4.5.1. symbol attribute:
The symbol of the section.
Values: a character string identifying an IPC symbol, maximum of 14 characters
as defined by the 15 first positions of WIPO ST.8 except position 9 (separating
character).
4.5.2. illustrationsNo attribute:
The number of the illustrations in the main group.
For main groups the value is always 0.
4.5.3. entryType attribute
The type of the symbol.
Values: “c” or “i”.

“c” means classification symbol,

“i” means indexing symbol.
D:\533571106.doc
17/02/16
ver 1.01
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
6/9
4.6. IPCIllustrationsGroup tag
Embedding tag for the Group in which the following illustrations are found, with the
following attributes:
4.6.1. symbol attribute:
The symbol of the Group.
Values: a character string identifying an IPC symbol, maximum of 14 characters
as defined by the 15 first positions of WIPO ST.8 except position 9 (separating
character).
4.6.2. illustrationsNo attribute:
The number of the illustrations in the Group.
4.6.3. entryType attribute
The type of the symbol.
Values: “c” or “i”.

“c” means classification symbol,

“i” means indexing symbol.
4.7. illustrations tag
The tag indicates that the illustrations for the specific symbol are to follow. It has no
attribute.
4.8. illustration tag
Embedding tag for the illustration with the following attributes:
4.8.1. type attribute:
Attribute defining whether the illustration illustrates the IPC scheme or the
Definitions.
Values:
 scheme – for illustration of the IPC scheme
 definition – for illustration of the Definitions
D:\533571106.doc
17/02/16
ver 1.01
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
7/9
4.8.2. label attribute:
The name of the file in which the illustration is stored. It is generated from the
symbol identifier with a sequence number appended to it (following an
underscore). In case of only one illustration the sequence No is 0, for the second
illustration it is 1, etc.
Values: a character string identifying an IPC symbol, maximum of 14 characters
as defined by the 15 first positions of WIPO ST.8 except position 9 (separating
character) plus “_N” appended where N is an integer (starting with 0 and
increasing by 1 for each additional illustration).
4.8.3. src attribute:
The illustration filename.
4.9. Illustrationversion tag
Embedding tag for the alternate format files of the same illustration (the default format is
GIF). It is nested into the illustration tag. Its attributes:
4.9.1. format attribute
The attribute defines the format of the alternate file.
Values: file extension names: bmp, gif, cdx, skc.
5. Illustrations fragment samples
5.1. Simple illustration entry
<IPCIllustrations edition="20130101">
<IPCIllustrationsSection symbol="A" illustrationsNo="0">
<IPCIllustrationsClass symbol="A01" illustrationsNo="0">
<IPCIllustrationsSubclass symbol="A01N"
illustrationsNo="0" entryType="c">
<IPCIllustrationsMaingroup
symbol="A01N0031000000" illustrationsNo="0" entryType="c">
<IPCIllustrationsGroup
symbol="A01N0031140000" illustrationsNo="1" entryType="c">
<illustrations>
<illustration type="scheme"
label="A01N0031140000_0" src="A01N0031140000_0.gif">
<illustrationversion
format="bmp" src="A01N0031140000_0.bmp"/>
<illustrationversion
format="gif" src="A01N0031140000_0.gif"/>
D:\533571106.doc
17/02/16
ver 1.01
IPC E-layer Illustrations file Specification
8/9
<illustrationversion
format="cdx" src="A01N0031140000_0.cdx"/>
<illustrationversion
format="skc" src="A01N0031140000_0.skc"/>
</illustration>
</illustrations>
</IPCIllustrationsGroup>
</IPCIllustrationsMaingroup>
</IPCIllustrationsSubclass>
</IPCIllustrationsClass>
</IPCIllustrationsSection>
</IPCIllustrations>
6. Format
XML is used to facilitate the exchange of information. Therefore, this file is not
expected to be opened entirely in an application (DOM model), but instead is expected to
be parsed on the fly for appropriate transformation e.g. for loading in an IT system (e.g.
Simple Access XML API, SAXON, XERCES (Apache), Omnimark)
The Compilation File makes use of name spaces and Xlink techniques.
D:\533571106.doc
17/02/16
ver 1.01