IPC Internet Publication Help

Version 5.3

 

IPC Internet Publication Help

Introduction

IPC Scheme Viewer

RCL: Revision Concordance List

Catchwords

Compilation of amendments to the IPC

Corrigendum

Term Search

Cross-References search

CPC/FI parallel view

STATS Assistance

IPCCAT Assistance

URL and Web Services for IPC Internet Publication

Guide to the IPC

 

 

Introduction

Welcome to IPCPUB, the internet publication of the International Patent Classification (IPC)!

The various notions of the IPC information in authentic languages (i.e. in English and French) are accessible through:

Horizontal tabs for:
 

·                     Various versions of the IPC Scheme. The relevant version of the IPC is indicated under the “Version” box;  The scheme includes Illustrations (only for some subclasses and groups of the IPC) and definitions of subclasses and main groups (currently of some subclasses and groups only);

·                     The Revision Concordance List (RCL) between subsequent versions of the IPC; 

·                     Catchword Index, with references of the IPC;

·                     The Compilation shows the list of all amendments between two consecutive versions of the IPC;

·                     The Corrigendum shows the corrections that could not be made before the end of the technical preparation of the publication;

 

Or as independent windows for:
 

·                     IPC definitions

·                     Scheme illustrations

·                     Term definitions from IPC definitions glossary or from the IPC guide glossary.

 

Meaning and layout of the IPC:

Information about the meaning and layout of the above mentioned IPC notions are available in the IPC Guide.

 

Functionality selection:

Selection menus and buttons provided on the left part of the window are IPC notion dependent.

 

Search functions:

·                     Terms Search, for terms of the textual parts of the Scheme of the full IPC, of the Catchword Index, and of all Definitions of the IPC.

·                     Cross-references, to search places referencing a specific IPC symbol or its subgroups

 

Automatic Assistance in the IPC (Software installation options):

·                     STATS: Highest number of IPC occurrences in patent documents from PATENTSCOPE.

·                     Text categorization (IPCCAT): Automatic text categorization in the IPC.

 

URL based access and web services:

It is possible to hyperlink to various notions of the internet publication of the IPC through URL parameters.

Software applications can also access web services offered by IPCPUB.

See the URL and Web Services for IPC Internet Publication.

 

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibility of this system was considered for Explorer 9 and Firefox 20. However IPCPUB is optimized for Firefox.
Enabling of JavaScript and cookies is required for a good functioning of IPCPUB.

 
Results display: user interaction and response time

Please note that this Internet publication is a dynamic presentation of the IPC database;

in case of efficiency problems, you are invited to make use of the option "Number of displayed entries" in the Scheme.

 

IPC Scheme Viewer

 

IPC navigation

The following choices are available for navigating through the IPC:

1.             Enter the symbol to be viewed in the field "current symbol" and click in the “Go to” button; this will display the selected entry of the IPC and its context according to the selected options. Selecting a different option automatically updates the content of the display.

2.             All symbols in the display window of the viewer are hyperlinked; thus, when clicking on the symbol the corresponding entry in the IPC will subsequently be displayed

3.             Since the “path” and “hierarchic” view (defined below) modes display only a selection of IPC entries they may also show an additional "+" button next to symbols which allows for opening the next hierarchically lower level of the respective symbol, if such level exists.

IPC presentation details

 

 

The selection menu for the IPC Viewer shown on its left side contains the following elements:

Version

Select the Version of the IPC to be browsed. (See item 10 from the Guide to the IPC)

Current symbol

Enter the symbol to be viewed.
Accepted formats: A, A01, A01B, A01B 1/00, A01B1/00, A 01 B 1/00, A01B1/00, A01B0001000000, H04 W00281 600 00

“Go To” button

Clicking will display the given symbol and its context according to the selected view mode and options.

This function also provides access to information (e.g. about its transfer) on a specific symbol which was deleted in the relevant IPC version.

Language

Select the language version to be used; Select English/French, to display the two language versions side by side.

View mode

Select the context of the symbol to be displayed.

path:          Displays the selected entry, its hierarchically higher entries, and all entries in the next lower hierarchical level.

full:            For groups and subclasses, this view mode displays all groups of the corresponding subclass, the selected symbol being located on the top line of the display window; for class and section symbols this view mode is equivalent to the path mode.

hierarchic:        Displays the selected entry, its hierarchically higher entries, and all entries in the same hierarchical level as the selected entry.

Deleted entries

Displays deletions from the previous IPC Version. These can be individual entries or intervals of entries (See paragraphs 27 and 27bis of the Guidelines for Revision of the IPC).

A deleted entry is displayed in numerical order at the same hierarchical level as the preceding entry except if the deleted entry is a sub-group and “view mode” is either “path” or “hierarchic”, then this entry is displayed at the same hierarchical level as the closest entry (the next or the preceding symbol in numerical order)

Subclass index

Select to display subclass indexes.

Guidance headings

Select to display subclass guidance headings. When a plurality of successive main groups within a scheme relate to common subject matter, a “guidance heading” before the first of such main groups may be provided. In such case, a line is displayed at the end of the concerned range e.g. in “full view” mode, after the last group under the last concerned main group or in “hierarchic view” mode, after the last concerned main group.

Notes

Select if you want to present notes in IPC scheme.

Term search in the IPC is possible for simple terms (sequence of alphanumerical characters) and multi-term (combination of simple terms separated by space characters) in the textual parts of the Scheme, of the Catchword Index, and of all Definitions of the IPC. This functionality can be used with operators and options described under Term Search  

Allows for search of places referencing a specific IPC symbol and (as an option) its subgroups in the IPC scheme, definition and/or catchword.

Number of displayed entries

Selects the maximum number of symbols to be displayed.

Symbols outside the selected range will appear with red background, grouped by the selected range.

Clicking in the red groups will display the symbols belonging to the range.

 

 

IPCPUB version X.Y

Version X.Y of the IPCPUB software.

Last modified:

Date of the last change in IPCPUB.

 

 

IPC presentation details

 

IPC presentation details

Bridge function Links to other databases and classifications

Provides access to other language versions of the IPC (as established by some national authorities), other patent classification systems and to patent databases; clicking this symbol will open a pop-up window; clicking on one of the offered choices in the pop-up window either displays the closest corresponding symbol in the selected language version or initiates a search in the selected database with the respective IPC symbol as parameter.

Definitions

Clicking this icon will display the corresponding Definition entirely unfolded in a separate window.

Folding / unfolding chapters

1. Pressing the   icon unfolds the corresponding chapter of the Definition.

2. Pressing the  icon  folds the corresponding chapter of the Definition.

3. Pressing the  icon in the right top corner unfolds all chapters of the Definition.

4. Pressing the  icon in the right top corner folds all chapters of the Definition.

 

Linked symbols and terms

 

1.             All symbols in Definitions are Hyperlinked and clicking on them will display the corresponding entry in the IPC Viewer.

2.                 Terms contained in the Glossary and terms defined in the Glossary of the Guide are hyperlinked; When activated, they open a pop-up window with the terminology of the particular term.

 

Illustrations

Click on this icon to display the corresponding illustration or to download the file in specific formats. In case of several Illustrations for the same symbol, they are listed one-by-one.

The Illustrations window remains open even if the illustration of another symbol is requested.

For illustration of chemical formulae, in addition to image(s) display, some other formats are also offered to specialists for download/opening through specific and proprietary software extensions: MDL's ISIS Sketch (SKC) or ChemDraw (CDX) format.

PDF view PDF

Clicking on a PDF icons placed next to a subclass symbol opens the corresponding subclass PDF document in a new browser tab

/window.  

Indexing symbol Indexing symbol

Indexing symbols are marked with Indexing .

Warnings Warnings

This icon is present next to symbols where a specific situation needs to be mentioned. E.g., errors were found after the technical preparation of this publication, incomplete reclassification...

Click on this icon to display the explanatory text associated with this warning.

Background color

The following color coding is applied to backgrounds of IPC entries:

1.             Classes are presented on a dark pale orange background, black characters.

2.             Subclasses are presented on a pale orange background.

3.             Main groups are presented on a light pale orange background.

4.             Guidance headings are presented on a white background, orange characters.

5.             Groups, indexes and notes are presented on a white background:

6.             All other entries, e.g. subgroups, are displayed with a white background;

7.             Symbols out of the displaying range are displayed with red background.

8.             Occurrences of searched  terms and cross-references in the displayed view are highlighted with a green background.

Format of the version indicator

The version indicator is either [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] or [YYYY.MM] for IPC reform 2006.01.

If only one version is available, the version indicator is rendered as black and bold text.
If more than one version is available, the version indicator is rendered as a link and only the last version indicator is displayed. When clicking on it, the current and all previous version indicators is displayed as pull down window.

Linked symbols and terms

All symbols are Hyperlinked and clicking on them will display the corresponding entry in the IPC Scheme Viewer.
In case of term appearing in the IPC Guide Glossary or in subclasses where the Definition of this subclass contains a Glossary, all terms of these Glossaries appear in the scheme as hyperlinked to their explanation with the following precedence by decreasing order:

· group definition Glossary

· subclass Definition Glossary

· IPC guide Glossary.
 

 

 

 

RCL: Revision Concordance List

The RCL describes the relation between entries in the previous and the new version:

a.             for each scope modified and deleted entry of the previous version all entries of the new version where subject matter is now classified, and

b.             for each entry of the new version any entries of the previous version where subject matter was formerly classified.

The selection menu for the RCL shown on its left side contains following elements:

 

Direction

Select the direction as:

1.             Old-to-new: the left column then contains symbols valid in the previous version and the right column contains for each such symbol at least one symbol valid in the current version (see case (a) above);

2.             New-to-old: the left column then contains symbols valid in the current version and the right column contains for each such symbol at least one symbol of the previous version (see case (b) above).

“Index” Button

The Index of the RCL displays the classes and subclasses concerned by the revision of this IPC version.

All subclass symbols are hyperlinked, click on them to open the above mentioned table for the concerned subclass.

 

Presentation

Red and pink background

Entries in the previous version.

Green and light green background

Entries in the new version.

Green, Italics

New entries.

Red

Deleted entries.

Blue

Modified symbol with file scope change.

Black

Not modified but used as Source or Target for reclassification.

                               

All symbols are hyperlinked. Clicking a symbol allows to view the respective entry in the corresponding version of the IPC, i.e. clicking on a symbol in the column of the previous version will display this entry according to this version.

 

 

Catchwords

When opening the Catchword tab for the first time, an index page is presented for direct navigation - by clicking on any term - to an appropriate range of the alphabetically ordered Catchwords.

Current word

“Go to” Button

insert into  this box a word to be searched for in IPC catchword index.

Click this button to display the "alphabetically closest" catchword entry. The search is effectuated only among the main entries of the Catchword Index, i.e. the terms displayed in bold.

This box is updated with the last catchword index entry used during navigation in the catchword index.

Navigation

 

In a list of Catchwords entries:

·                  Click Previous to display the previous page.

·                  Click Next to display the next page

“Index” Button

Press the Index button to return to the Index in the selected language. Click on any of the entries to open the alphabetically closest list of catchword entries.

 

 

 

 

Compilation of amendments to the IPC

The compilation shows the list of all amendments between two consecutive versions of the IPC.

 
Items of the IPC compilation

The compilation follows the order of the IPC scheme. The relevant location is indicated by class/subclass. If the same subclass is amended by several sessions or projects, the amendments are indicated for each of them.

They are divided by horizontal lines, and show the following information:

·                     class or subclass. If not provided, the context remains the previous subclass.

·                     Session: the last session that revised a sequence of entries within the last class/subclass

·                     Project/Projet: the project of the last revision session that amended this part of the IPC  

 

Example

This is composed of two parts, the first part was last revised by IB/19, the second by CE/40.

 

Entries within the IPC compilation

Each entry modified in the last revision period is displayed with the following:

1.             Type of the modification(s)

·         N: the entry is a new entry in the target Version

·         C: the file scope of the entry was  modified

·         M: the text or other data of a formerly existing entry was modified, but not its file scope

·         D: the entry was deleted

2.             Location in the IPC Scheme

·         for classes, subclasses: the static text "Title"/"Titre"

·         for maingroups and groups: the symbol of the entry (without its subclass part)

·         for notes, guidance headings and indexes: the scope and type of the IPC entry

3.             Modifications of the previous IPC Version

·         For new entries: the text of the new entry

·         For modified entries (C or M modification): the actual modifications to be made on the text (see Presentation rules below)

·         For deleted structured entries (e.g. groups): the transfer notes

·         For removed non-structured entries (e.g. notes, guidance headings): no text

 

For example:

 

 example

 

Presentation rules

For the background color of entries, the same rules apply as for the IPC scheme.

 

The text of the entries and their amendments is displayed according to the following convention:

·                     non-modified text: black characters

·                     inserted text: green text

·                     deleted text: red strikethrough text

·                     new entries: text in italics

 

For example:

 

The final text in the scheme will look like:  

 

Taking into account that the texts appearing in blue are glossary terms.

 

 

Corrigendum

 

The Corrigendum tab displays corrections that could not be made before the end of the technical preparation of the publication. These corrections take precedence over the content in other tabs.

 

 

Term Search

 

Term search in the IPC is possible for simple terms (sequence of alphanumerical characters) and multi-term (combination of simple terms separated by space characters) in the textual parts of the Scheme of the IPC, of the Catchword Index, and of all Definitions of the IPC. The “Terms” search button is available from the left menu of the “Scheme” and “Catchword” tabs.

 

Word(s)

For search, characters in terms are considered as case and accent insensitive.

 

Some special characters (e.g. % ( ) { } [ ] ! & | ^ , :) and stop words (e.g. “an”, “and”, “not”, “such”) are ignored (i.e. typing them or not returns the same search result)

 

The order in which terms are indicated in the query is not significant for the order in which terms are looked for (e.g. returned results are the same if user looks for [plant biocides] or for [biocides plant]) excepted if terms are searched as a phrase (e.g. returned results are not the same if user looks for [“plant biocides”] or for [“biocides plant”]).

 

Special characters acting as operators:

 

?

In the term search query string “?” stands for any single character present (e.g., without “Stemming”, [plant?] stands for “plants” but not “plant”).   One or more occurrence of the “?” wildcard character can be used.

*

In the term search query string, “*” stands for no or any number of any characters (e.g., without “Stemming”, [plant*] stands for “plant”, “plants”, “plantation”, “planting”...) One or more occurrence of the “*” wildcard character can be used.

""

Use double quotes to search for an expression  (e.g. [electric car] searches for “electric” followed by “car”. Note that terms found can be separated by one or more special characters and/or stop words in the text of the hit)

~

Use tilde "~" and a number at the end of an expression to perform a Proximity Search within a specific distance.  For example, to search for a "electric" and "car" within 10 words of each other, use: ["electric car"~10]. (See Fuzzy Search below)

+
Use "+" to mean that the immediately following term must be in the text of the hit list.

-
Use "-" to mean that the immediately following term must not be included in the text of the hit list. (e.g. [plant biocide -repellant]).

Note that if they do not start the query, + and – must be preceded with a blank space to be interpreted as operator.

 

Boolean operators:

Boolean operators allow terms and phrases to be combined through logic operators.

The following operators are supported and must be ALL CAPS:

The AND operator is the default conjunction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the AND operator is used. This operator matches entries where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single place.

The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching place if either of the terms exist in this place.

The NOT operator excludes places that contain the term after NOT.

 

Boolean, phrase and proximity operators are ignored if the “Path” option described below is selected.

Fuzzy search:

IPCPUB supports fuzzy searches based on the Levenshtein Distance, or Edit Distance algorithm. To do a fuzzy search use the tilde "~" character at the end of a Single word Term. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" use the fuzzy search:

[roam~]

This search will find terms like foam and roams.

An optional value can be put after the tilde to change the expected degree of similarity. This value must be from 0 to 1 (excluded) and is by default 0.5. For example:

[roam~0.8]

 

Boolean, fuzzy operators and special characters “?”, and “*” are ignored when part of a phrase.

 

Stemming (Software installation option)

If the “Stemming” optional feature is installed, a “Stemming” option is visible under the Term Search.

 

If “Stemming” is selected, words that come from the same stem of the word specified in the query are also searched (e.g. searching for “medicinal” will also match “medicine”).

 

If “Stemming” is not selected, the search is performed according to the above mentioned definition of words, special characters and operators.

Limit to:

The content of the “Limit to” box specifies the places of the IPC and their subgroups to be searched.   The content is a comma-separated list of IPC symbols.

If “Limit to” is empty, the full contents of what is defined by “IPC notions” (i.e. Any combination of the following: “scheme”, “definitions”, “catchword”) is considered.

Exclude:

The content of the “Exclude” box specifies the places of the IPC and their subgroups to be excluded from the search: a comma-separated list of IPC symbols.

Path:

The use of this option doesn't have any effect for single term search. In case of multi term search, paths are considered in the IPC tree structure and defined as follows:

All paths starting from the subclass symbol in which the first occurrence of one of the specified terms is found, all hierarchically lower symbols where any specified term occurs, and ending at the hierarchically lowest symbols where one of the specified terms occurs.

 

If the “Path” option is selected, Terms Search returns the list of symbols where all of the specified terms occur within the list of above defined path. The contents of “Guidance Headings” and “Subclass Indexes” are excluded from the search.

Boolean, phrase and proximity operators are ignored if the “Path” option is selected.

Scope options:

These tick boxes are used to select the list of IPC notions in which the search should be performed. i.e., within scheme, definitions and/or catchwords.

 

Hit enter or click on “Display results” to launch the search.

Display Results:

The list of search results is displayed as a list of hyperlinks to the relevant view.   If the “Path” option is ticked, the view mode is automatically updated to “Path”. Otherwise the view mode is set to “Full”.   Each occurrence of a searched term (or resulting from interpretation of the search query) is highlighted in the corresponding view.

 

 

 

Cross-References search

 

It allows for search of places referencing a specific IPC symbol and (as an option) its subgroups. Only one IPC symbol is allowed. The search tool returns all places of the IPC referencing a symbol (as URL) grouped by IPC notion (scheme, definition and catchword).  For scheme and definition, the returned result is a list of IPC symbols sorted in normal order. For Catchword index, the returned result is a list of catchword entries in alphabetical order. Found references are highlighted in each of them.

The “Cross-References” search button is available from the left menu of the “Scheme” and “Catchword” tabs. 

In case a reference is found in a place covering an interval (e.g. note or guidance heading), the first symbol of this interval is returned.IPC Compilation presentation

The compilation shows the list of all amendments between two consecutive versions of the IPC. .

Items of the IPC compilation

The compilation follows the order of the IPC scheme. The relevant location is indicated by classlass/subclass. If the same subclass is amended by several sessions or projects, the amendments are indicated for each of them.

They are divided by horizontal lines, and show the following information:

IPC Compilation presentation

The compilation shows the list of all amendments between two consecutive versions of the IPC. .

Items of the IPC compilation

The compilation follows the order of the IPC scheme. The relevant location is indicated by classlass/subclass. If the same subclass is amended by several sessions or projects, the amendments are indicated for each of them.

They are divided by horizontal lines, and show the following information:

 

 

Symbol:

Use the content of the "Symbol" box to specify an IPC symbol referred in other places of the IPC.

Include subgroups:

If selected, the cross reference search returns all places of the IPC referencing this symbol (e.g. A01N) or referencing its subgroups (A01N 1/00, A01N 1/02). This option is not suitable for IPC referenced symbol above subclass (i.e. section, subsection, class). If not selected, the cross reference search returns the places of the IPC referencing only this symbol. This option is not allowed above sub classes (sections, sub-sections, classes) if not selected, the returned results have only IPC places referencing the symbol indicated in the “symbol” box.

Scope options:

These tick boxes are used to select the list of IPC notions in which the search should be performed. i.e., within scheme, definitions and/or catchwords.

 

Hit enter or click on “Display results” to launch the search.

Display Results:

The list of search results is displayed as a list of hyperlinks to the relevant place.   The view mode is automatically set to “Full”.   Each occurrence of a searched symbol is highlighted in the corresponding view.