International regional and corporate classification friend and foe

International, regional and corporate classification friend and foe of the user Arndt Mecke (Siemens AG, Munich)

PDG: Who we are The Patent Documentation Group (PDG), a non-profit organisation, was founded in 1957 as a working group by 13 European chemical and petrochemical companies, seeking to promote the effective and efficient use of patent information. It currently comprises 38 multinational companies in a variety of activities ranging from the engineering, chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Purpose and Objectives n Cooperation in patent information and documentation n Exchange knowledge and experience in all areas relating to patent information n Debate, discuss and stimulate improvements and new developments in patent information products n Determine and communicate proposals to third parties involved in the field of intellectual property

PDG: Organisation PDG Annual Conference Main Delegates PDG Board Secretary General PDG WG IMPACT Experts from PDG companies, 6 PTO's, WIPO, Providers, epi PDG WG Online Networks & Online Retrieval PDG WG PDV Patent Database Vendors Associated Working Groups Experts from PDG companies Analysis & Visualisation Biotechnology Chem. Reactions in Patents Education & Training Fulltext Searching

PDG: Who are our partners EPO Nat. Offices (Europe, Brazil) Meetings, Committees, Forum WIPO Meetings, Committees, Forum Partnership Observer Status: IPC, PCT, Standards Advisory Boards, Annual Conferences, Meetings CAS, TR, Questel, STN, Providers PIUG, CEPIUG nat. User Groups Contributions Common Activities CCD USPTO Trilateral, IP 5 Offices Intensified Cooperation Asian Offices CN, JP, KR

PDG: Who are our partners EPO Nat. Offices (Europe, Brazil) Meetings, Committees, Forum WIPO Meetings, Committees, Forum Partnership Observer Status: IPC, PCT, Standards Advisory Boards, Annual Conferences, Meetings CAS, TR, Questel, STN, Providers PIUG, CEPIUG nat. User Groups Contributions Common Activities CCD USPTO Trilateral, IP 5 Offices Intensified Cooperation Asian Offices CN, JP, KR

Classification – The Concept Aircraft Airplane Aeroplane Avion Aereo �机 самолёт máy bay เครองบน B 64 C

Classification – How is it used Patent Office: Find Prior Art in office‘s Examination Process

Classification – How is it used Industry: - Finding Prior Art (that can be used) in an Opposition or Nullity Procedure - Identifying IP that could be relevant in a „Freedom To Operate (FTO) Opinion“ or a „Product Clearing“ - Comparing technology positions of competitors

How is Classification used – e. g. FTO is necessary when - A new product is about to be launched - A new plant is build abroad - A new process shall be used - A technology shall be licensed To make sure that you are free of third parties‘ Intellectual Property Rights as part of due diligence, you have to. . . - search comprehensively in "nearly" all databases for the affected countries - evaluate legal status of relevant IP - and eventually draft a legal opinion Otherwise the company may loose a lot of money …

Requirements of industry To be useful in any application in industry a Classification has to be: - Consistent / Reliable - Well documented - As granular as possible

Evaluation of Available Classifications Consistent / Reliable Revison Handling Well Documented Granularity Level Assignment of the symbols by the assigning authrity/authorities IPC o + +(+) + (70. 000) ECLA ++ ++ (140. 000) CPC ? ? + +++ (250. 000) USPC ++ ++ o ++ (160. 000) DWPI MC/DC o-+ o + +/o (25. 000) FI / F-Terms ++ o o +++ 190. 000 (+375. 000) CHC (future) o(? ) ? ? ? (unfamiliar concept)

Country Coverage of Available Classifications Classification Assignment of the symbols by the assigning authrity/authorities IPC „World Wide“ ECLA EPO (+ aligned PCT minimum documentation + some NPL) CPC EPO + USPTO (+ aligned PCT minimum documentation + some NPL) USPC USPTO DWPI MC/DC ~50 Offices + some NPL („DWPI coverage“) FI / F-Terms JPO CHC (future) „World Wide“

Actual Issues

Classification – The Concept Aircraft Airplane Aeroplane Avion Aereo �机 самолёт máy bay เครองบน B 64 C

Granularity and Distribution IPC: Aircraft: B 64 C 11/30 -44 Ship: B 63 H 3/00 -12 Wind Turbines: F 03 D 7 Axial-flow pumps: F 04 D 29/36 Additional CPC: Hydro energy: Y 02 E 10/223 Wind energy: Y 02 E 10/721 USPC: Fluid reaction surfaces (i. e. Impellers): 416/147 ff DWPI DC: Non-positive displacement engines: Q 54

IPC Revision Handling G 07 B 15/06 – introduced in 2011. 01 : (220 results in PATENTSCOPE) Definition: Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e. g. automatic toll systems Formerly more general Classifications: G 07 B 15/00, G 07 B 15/02 and G 07 B 15/04 had to be searched together with keywords. (still 195 results in PATENTSCOPE) (IC: "G 07 B 15/00" OR IC: "G 07 B 15/02" OR IC: "G 07 B 15/04" )AND( EN_AB: toll OR EN_AB: (congestion charge) OR EN_AB: (road charge*) OR EN_AB: (road pric*) OR EN_AB: toll ) Office(s): wo Language: EN Stemming: true Of these 195 hits up to 64 relevant hits can still only be found by the old approach ((IC: "G 07 B 15/00" OR IC: "G 07 B 15/02" OR IC: "G 07 B 15/04" )AND( EN_AB: toll OR EN_AB: (congestion charge) OR EN_AB: (road charge*) OR EN_AB: (road pric*) OR EN_AB: toll )) NOT (IC: "G 07 B 15/06" ) Office(s): wo Language: EN Stemming: true Interpretation: A larger number of relevant documents have not been reclassified after 2+ years! And looking at other offices the numbers are comparable!

IPC Granularity Example: Master / Slave configuration and address assignment in for Daisy-chained industrial controllers (aka Enumeration) The Patent Family: • • • DE 4404962 -A 1; DE 4404962 -C 2 JP 7262128 -A US 5583754 -A CN 1125370 -A; CN 1083198 -C GB 2286750 -A; GB 2286750 -B

IPC Granularity. . . was classified into 5 different IPC Classes by the different offices • • • G 06 F 12/06; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; - Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures; • Addressing or allocation; Relocation; • • Addressing a physical block of locations, e. g. base addressing, module addressing, address space extension, memory dedication; G 06 F 13/36; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; - Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units; • Handling requests for interconnection or transfer; • • for access to common bus or bus system; G 06 F 3/00; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; - Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e. g. interface arrangements; H 04 L 12/403; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e. g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION; - Data switching networks; • characterised by path configuration, e. g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]; • • Bus networks; • • • with centralised control, e. g. polling; H 04 Q 9/14; SELECTING; - Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom; • Calling by using pulses; Conclusion: Introduction of new Classes need to be much more flexible

Conclusion Key issues for a user friendly Classification are: - Consistency and reliability of classification - among offices/institutions that are applying them - Availability of up-to-date classes aligned to technology in use - Solid and timely revision process PDG IMPACT has proposed a user day – and WIPO responded positively, which is highly appreciated! Furthermore we are suggesting a more regular exchange of ideas on classification issues to foster mutual understanding between users and promoting classification as one of the most efficient patent information tools. PDG should therefore be considered a key stakeholder offering all the competence of its 38 industrial member companies.

Thank you!