La Clasificación Internacional de Patentes (CIP) ha sido reformada para adaptarse al entorno electrónico y crear una herramienta universal de búsqueda. La CIP reformada consta de dos niveles, básico y avanzado, que son compatibles entre sí. El nivel básico se utilizará para búsquedas en pequeñas colecciones nacionales de patentes, mientras que el nivel avanzado se utilizará para búsquedas en archivos internacionales de patentes. La reforma también incluye la creación de una Base de Dat
29. Herramienta de acceso gratuito en Internet, gestionada por la OMPI, que de forma automática permite preclasificar una solicitud de patente según la Clasificación Internacional de Patentes esrap01 clobteres
30. Introducir un texto significativo de la solicitud: - 1ª Reivindicación, - Resumen - etc
31. Se recomienda no escribir directamente sobre la aplicación, sino que previamente se digitalice o escriba en un programa intermedio como Word, p.ej para su almacenamiento. Documento de Word ---------------------- ----------------------
After the signing of the Strasbourg Agreement, the European Classification became the de facto first edition of the IPC and, following the entry into force of the Strasbourg Agreement in 1975, the administration of the IPC became responsibility solely of WIPO. Although only 54 countries are bound by the Strasbourg Agreement, much more countries are actually applying the IPC. Industrial property offices of more than 100 countries and five international organizations allot IPC symbols to the patent documents they issue.
A popular view often expressed by computer experts is that, with the rapid development of text search systems and the availability of more and more full text patent databases, the importance of patent classifications could diminish in the future. However, text search systems have serious restrictions in information retrieval concerned with the language dependence, treatment of synonyms, inconsistent and frequently changing terminology. All these problems can be overcome by a language-independent classification system. This slide illustrates main advantages of using classification systems for information retrieval.
The following principal goals of the reform were defined in the Strategic Plan: - the IPC should be designed in such a way that it satisfies the needs of users searching international patent collections and users searching only smaller national collections; - a single master classification database should encompass the IPC data relating to the world’s patent documents; - a current IPC edition should be capable of being used for performing a patent search, thus eliminating the need for users to rely on superseded IPC editions; - the IPC should become a readily available, readily understood and easily used tool; - the IPC should be fully accommodated to an electronic environment to further increase its search power, facilitate its maintenance and revision, and adapt it for use with other electronic search tools.
The two-level system will consist of a core and an advanced levels which will be fully compatible. Any industrial property office may choose which level it wishes to employ for classifying their published patent documents
The core level will contain approximately 20,000 entries at high hierarchical levels: classes, subclasses, main groups and, in some active fields, subgroups, of the current edition of the IPC. It will be a relatively stable part of the reformed IPC. Revision amendments to the core level will be made in three-year revision cycles when necessitated by technological progress. The core level will be used for obligatory classification of patent documents, for general information purposes, for example, dissemination of information, collecting of patent statistics, and for searching smaller, national patent collections.
The advanced level will represent a further elaboration of the core level; this means that it will include the core level and additional subgroups. Initially, in 2005, it will include approximately 70,000 entries of the current, seventh, edition of the IPC, but its size will rapidly grow since revision amendments to the advanced level will be continuously made through an accelerated procedure under the supervision of a special subcommittee.This accelerated procedure will facilitate rapid accommodation in the IPC of developments in technology. Different internal IPC-based classification systems developed by some major offices will be harmonized and will serve as a main source of revision amendments for the advanced level of the IPC.
Although publication of the IPC in paper form will be continued, it will be restricted to the core level, in view of its stability during the three-year revision cycles. The Internet publication will contain the complete text of the Classification including the core and the advanced level and will become a principal form of publication of the IPC. The Internet version will incorporate the electronic layer, including various electronic data illustrating IPC entries or explaining them more in detail. This electronic data will enhance understanding and facilitate the use of the IPC for industrial property offices and the general public. Classification definitions for selected subclasses of the IPC will already be available in the electronic layer of the next edition of the IPC. They are intended to provide more detailed explanations of the contents of IPC entries than the official text of the IPC. More than 3,000 structured chemical formulae will be available for viewing in the electronic layer. Their role will be to illustrate chemical areas of the IPC by providing a visual graphic representation of the subject matter of the chemical areas. The electronic layer will also include facilities for displaying main groups of the IPC in a standardized order, informative references and definitions of technical terms.
Although publication of the IPC in paper form will be continued, it will be restricted to the core level, in view of its stability during the three-year revision cycles. The Internet publication will contain the complete text of the Classification including the core and the advanced level and will become a principal form of publication of the IPC. The Internet version will incorporate the electronic layer, including various electronic data illustrating IPC entries or explaining them more in detail. This electronic data will enhance understanding and facilitate the use of the IPC for industrial property offices and the general public. Classification definitions for selected subclasses of the IPC will already be available in the electronic layer of the next edition of the IPC. They are intended to provide more detailed explanations of the contents of IPC entries than the official text of the IPC. More than 3,000 structured chemical formulae will be available for viewing in the electronic layer. Their role will be to illustrate chemical areas of the IPC by providing a visual graphic representation of the subject matter of the chemical areas. The electronic layer will also include facilities for displaying main groups of the IPC in a standardized order, informative references and definitions of technical terms.
Some changes in the classification practice of industrial property offices will result from the reform of the IPC. Classification symbols will be presented on the front page of patent documents in a tabular form. This will facilitate machine-reading of classification information. A clear distinction will be made between classification symbols reflecting invention information in a patent document or additional information and classification symbols belonging to the core or to the advanced level. A new version of WIPO Standard ST.8 prescribing standard recording of IPC symbols on machine-readable records should be implemented by industrial property offices as of January 1, 2005. This new version has already been approved by the WIPO Standing Committee on Information Technologies. Finally, offices carrying out the reclassification of their files following revision changes in the IPC will be required to regularly send the reclassification data to the Master Classification Database.