Harmony Project

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 System Basis EPO ECLA IPC JPO FI IPC USPTO USPC Applied to most of JP only US only PCT min. 190,000 155,000 Classifications 125,000 History of Harmony Project Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status 2000.11 18th Trilateral Conference - TOs agreed on creating pilot projects Committee of Experts of IPC Union 30th session - 19 fields selected for TOs’ harmony projects (T001-T019) - 7 of the 19 fields are from IPC revision projects 2001.2 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 7th session - new project (T020) 8th session - new projects (T021-T023) 9th session - new projects (T024-T030) 10th session - new projects (T031-T032) 11th session - new projects (T035-T037) 12th session - new projects (T038-T047) 13th session - new projects (T048-T056) 14th session (at Berlin, EPO) Actions 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 Reasons History Actions Procedure Procedural steps – exchange & compare schemes Exchange & Compare current schemes ECLA . EPtext1 . . EPtext2 . . EPtext3 FI . JPtext1 . . JPtext2 . . JPtext3 . . . JPtext4 USPC . UStext1 . UStext2 . UStext3 Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Procedural steps – discuss solutions Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Discuss solutions E-forum E-mail Meeting /Exchange (Trilateral) Harmony Visit (2005.6~) Procedural steps – discuss solutions Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Harmony visit (2005.6~) EP/JP Harmony visit (at EPO) - 19 fields Trilateral Harmony visit (at USPTO) - 10 fields Procedural steps – discuss solutions Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Effect of Harmony visit Existing projects - Acceleration of discussion on classification harmonization Potential projects - Creation of new projects(T052&T053) Reasons History Actions Procedure Procedural steps – agree on common scheme Agree on common scheme e.g. Business Methods ECLA . G06Q30/00C . . G06Q30/00C2 . . G06Q30/00C4 Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status FI . G06F17/60,300 . . G06F17/60,342 USPC . . 3044D . . 3043N . . 3050Y Procedural steps – agree on common scheme Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Agree on common scheme (Phase C) HARMONY (ECLA/FI/USPC) . G06Q30/00C . Data processing in buying/selling or leasing transactions . . 3044D .. for matching . . 3043N .. for auction . . G06Q30/00C2 .. for electronic shopping, e.g. electronic catalogue, remote browsing or ordering . . 3050Y .. .. electronic catalogue G06F17/60,342 .. for leasing transaction Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Status Procedural steps – finalization of project Classification test (Phase D) Final agreement (Phase E) Shared reclassification (Phase F) Actions for ALS* *Advanced Level Special Subcommittee Reasons Select technical fields for harmonization e.g. Wireless Communication Networks, Business methods History Actions 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 Phase C Completed - IPC Revision Proposal to ALS Actions for ALS Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Phase C Completed - IPC revision proposal to ALS (SC-project) ALS Approval - Creation of A-project - Invitation for comments & discussion ALS Approval Status - Documents reclassification Completed - Entering into force of IPC-AL Harmony to IPC Reasons No.of divisions 200K 150K Harmonized History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS FI USPC Harmony to IPC ECLA Advanced Level Status 100K 50K 68711groups Reformed IPC Int.Cl4 Int.Cl5 Int.Cl6 Int.Cl7 Core Level (30% of AL Classes) 2012 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009 Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Effects of Harmony project & reformed IPC e.g. Combating harmful chemical substances by chemical means Different search in each classification system Status EPO A62D3/00A ECLA Search JPO A62D3/00,301 FI Search USPTO 588/300 USPC Search Others A62D3/00 IPC Search Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Effects of Harmony project & reformed IPC The same search strategy applied among TOs according to harmonized classification scheme USPTO 588/302 Status EPO A62D3/00E JPO A62D3/00,400 Others A62D3/00 IPC Search ECLA ＝ FI ＝ USPC Search Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC Effects of Harmony project & reformed IPC The same search strategy applied among all the documents classified according to the IPC-AL Status EPO A62D3/1010 JPO A62D3/1010 USPTO A62D3/1010 Others A62D3/1010 IPC Advanced level search Current status Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC 45 Active Harmony projects 6 Harmony projects already forwarded to ALS Status Current projects 1/3 Project T001 T002 T003 T004 T005 T007 IPC A62D3/ G06Q C40B G06F19/ H04N G01N Subject Combating Harmful Chemical Substances by Chemical Means Business Methods Combinatorial Chemistry Bioinformatics Interactive Video Distribution Systems Investigating or Analyzing Atomic Surface Structure by ScanningProbe Techniques Phase F C D D C A Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC T008 T009 T010 T012 T014 T020 B82 F16D B60K6/ H01L51/ B60W G03G13/,15/ Nano-Technology Brakes - Disc, Drum and their controls Hybrid Vehicles Having Electrical and Internal Combustion Engines Organic Solid State Devices Conjoint control of drive units; Conjoint control of at least two subunits thereof B C E C C A Status Electric or magnetic imagery (eg photocopying): forming toner images, perfecting toner images Pedals Image processing Inverter devices T021 T023 T024 G05G1/14 G06T H02M7/42 F C D Current projects 2/3 Project T025 IPC H04W G09G3/28 Wireless Communication Driving of Plasma Displays Subject Phase E C Reasons T026 History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC T027 T028 T030 T031 T032 T033 T035 T036 T037 G05D1/02 B24B B42D H01M H04H B60R F24F5/ G03F1/ H01L33/ Control of position or course (Automatic pilot) Making abrading tools Credit cards Lithium Ion Batteries Broadcasting distribution systems Air bags for vehicles Air-conditioning systems (outdoor units) Photo-masks and screens Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) C A A D D A C A A Status T038 T039 T040 T041 A01M B23K26/ C02F1/521/56,5/00 E05B Scaring and repelling devices Working with laser beams Water treatment Locks A A A A Current projects 3/3 Project T042 T043 IPC F16H G06F21/ H01R12/ Hydrostatic transmissions Computer security Subject Phase A A A Reasons T044 Electric connectors specially adapted for printed circuits History Actions Procedure Actions for ALS Harmony to IPC T045 T046 T047 T048 T049 T050 T051 T052 T053 T054 T055 H01R13/ H01R24/ H04N7/26 A61K31/ C07D C07H C07J G01S1/,5/ G06F3/ G04C9/,11/, G04G5/,7/ G04 except T054 B41N Details of electric connectors Overall structure of electric connectors Digital coding of video Medicinal Preparations containing organic active ingredients Heterocyclic compounds Carbohydrates Steroids Position fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position-line determination (GPS) Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) Wave clocks Horology 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 A A A A A A A A A A Status T056 A Thank you for your attention ! IPC Forum Geneva, 13 February 2006