Trilateral Classification Harmony Project IPC Forum Geneva 13

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 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 18 th Trilateral Conference - TOs agreed on creating pilot projects Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status 2001. 2 Committee of Experts of IPC Union 30 th session - 19 fields selected for TOs’ harmony projects (T 001 -T 019) - 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 7 th session - new project (T 020) 8 th session - new projects (T 021 -T 023) 9 th session - new projects (T 024 -T 030) 10 th session - new projects (T 031 -T 032) 11 th session - new projects (T 035 -T 037) 12 th session - new projects (T 038 -T 047) 13 th session - new projects (T 048 -T 056) 14 th session (at Berlin, EPO)

Actions Select technical fields for harmonization Reasons History Actions 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. EPtext 1. . EPtext 2. . EPtext 3 FI. JPtext 1. . JPtext 2. . JPtext 3. . . JPtext 4 USPC. UStext 1. UStext 2. UStext 3

Procedural steps – discuss solutions Reasons History Actions Procedure Discuss solutions 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(T 052&T 053)

Reasons History Actions Procedure Procedural steps – agree on common scheme Agree on common scheme e. g. Business Methods Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status ECLA FI USPC . G 06 Q 30/00 C 2. . G 06 Q 30/00 C 4 . G 06 F 17/60, 300. . G 06 F 17/60, 342 . . 3044 D. . 3043 N. . 3050 Y

Procedural steps – agree on common scheme Agree on common scheme (Phase C) Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status HARMONY (ECLA/FI/USPC). G 06 Q 30/00 C. Data processing in buying/selling or leasing transactions . . 3044 D . . for matching . . 3043 N. . for auction. . G 06 Q 30/00 C 2. . for electronic shopping, e. g. electronic catalogue, remote browsing or ordering . . 3050 Y. . electronic catalogue G 06 F 17/60, 342. . for leasing transaction

Reasons History Actions Procedural steps – finalization of project 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 200 K USPC Procedure Actions for ALS 150 K ECLA Harmony to IPC Advanced Level Status 68711 groups 100 K 50 K Reformed IPC Int. Cl 4 1985 Int. Cl 6 Int. Cl 7 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009 Core Level (30% of AL Classes) 2012

Effects of Harmony project & reformed IPC Reasons History Actions e. g. Combating harmful chemical substances by chemical means Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Different search in each classification system Status EPO JPO USPTO Others A 62 D 3/00 A A 62 D 3/00, 301 588/300 A 62 D 3/00 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 A 62 D 3/00 E A 62 D 3/00, 400 588/302 A 62 D 3/00 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 A 62 D 3/1010 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 T 001 A 62 D 3/ Combating Harmful Chemical Substances by Chemical Means F T 002 G 06 Q Business Methods C T 003 C 40 B Combinatorial Chemistry D T 004 G 06 F 19/ Bioinformatics D T 005 H 04 N Interactive Video Distribution Systems C T 007 G 01 N Investigating or Analyzing Atomic Surface Structure by Scanning. Probe Techniques A Harmony to IPC T 008 B 82 Nano-Technology B Status T 009 F 16 D Brakes - Disc, Drum and their controls C T 010 B 60 K 6/ Hybrid Vehicles Having Electrical and Internal Combustion Engines E T 012 H 01 L 51/ Organic Solid State Devices C T 014 B 60 W Conjoint control of drive units; Conjoint control of at least two subunits thereof C T 020 G 03 G 13/, 15/ Electric or magnetic imagery (eg photocopying): forming toner images, perfecting toner images A T 021 G 05 G 1/14 Pedals F T 023 G 06 T Image processing C T 024 H 02 M 7/42 Inverter devices D Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS

Current projects 2/3 Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Project IPC Subject Phase T 025 H 04 W Wireless Communication E T 026 G 09 G 3/28 Driving of Plasma Displays C T 027 G 05 D 1/02 Control of position or course (Automatic pilot) C T 028 B 24 B Making abrading tools A T 030 B 42 D Credit cards A T 031 H 01 M Lithium Ion Batteries D T 032 H 04 H Broadcasting distribution systems D T 033 B 60 R Air bags for vehicles A T 035 F 24 F 5/ Air-conditioning systems (outdoor units) C T 036 G 03 F 1/ Photo-masks and screens A T 037 H 01 L 33/ Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)) A T 038 A 01 M Scaring and repelling devices A T 039 B 23 K 26/ Working with laser beams A T 040 C 02 F 1/521/56, 5/00 Water treatment A T 041 E 05 B Locks A

Current projects 3/3 Project IPC T 042 F 16 H T 043 Reasons Subject Phase Hydrostatic transmissions A G 06 F 21/ Computer security A T 044 H 01 R 12/ Electric connectors specially adapted for printed circuits A History T 045 H 01 R 13/ Details of electric connectors A Actions T 046 H 01 R 24/ Overall structure of electric connectors A Procedure T 047 H 04 N 7/26 Digital coding of video A Actions for ALS T 048 A 61 K 31/ Medicinal Preparations containing organic active ingredients A Harmony to IPC T 049 C 07 D Heterocyclic compounds A Status T 050 C 07 H Carbohydrates A T 051 C 07 J Steroids A T 052 G 01 S 1/, 5/ Position fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position-line determination (GPS) A T 053 G 06 F 3/ Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) A T 054 G 04 C 9/, 11/, G 04 G 5/, 7/ Wave clocks A T 055 G 04 except T 054 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 T 056 B 41 N

Thank you for your attention ! IPC Forum Geneva, 13 February 2006